I paid an afternoon visit to WWT Slimbridge today; a mild and bright afternoon. There had been reports of a Jack Snipe from the Martin Smith Hide over the past few days but there had been no reports yesterday or this morning, so I was not exactly hopeful of seeing this elusive bird, which would be a nice tick for my list for the year.
On arrival at the centre, I made for the hide in question, but, unsurprisingly, it was empty, and although I scanned the islands no snipe was evident. I did the rounds of the other hides on the Holden Walkway then ended up at the Holden Tower. Whilst there I heard rumours that the first four white fronted geese of the season had returned, and could be seen from the hides but later I was told that they had moved away. From the tower could be seen a couple of cranes, and a large flock of greylags which were put to flight by a low flying helicopter. Apart from that it was pretty quiet.
A visit to the South lake hides, produced views of snipe, further cranes, black tailed godwits, ruff and the usual ducks but I was most interested to hear that the 'guide in the hide' had seen the jack snipe that morning but it had retired to a spot behind the reeds. With that news, I decided to return to the Martin Smith Hide and as I approached it I could hear voices and indeed, inside, a number of people had their telescopes and lenses pointing at the island. The jack snipe is back, I was told, and I could immediately see it, feeding and bouncing as is its habit. It was great to watch it for a while, not having seen one before. As a bonus, the four white-fronts could be now seen amongst the greylags. All in all a pleasant afternoon with a some nice highlights to end the day.
video of jack snipe (apologies for voices in the background!)
jack snipe
video of jack snipe (apologies for voices in the background!)
common snipe
teal
crane
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