Wilson's Snipes

Lee French

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Jun 9, 2025, 7:37:30 PMJun 9

to Rogue Valley Birds

Plenty of early morning winnowing going on at the big meadow just past MP 21on DIMR. At the risk of being sniped at, I'm posting this just because the board has been so quiet.

Lee French 6-6-25 Wilson's Snipe 2064.JPG

kent...@gmail.com

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Jun 10, 2025, 8:38:49 PMJun 10

to Rogue Valley Birds

Really Nice shot!

Lee French

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Jun 10, 2025, 9:09:01 PMJun 10

to Rogue Valley Birds

According to Sibley, most shorebirds have 12 tailfeathers where as Snipes have 14. Must aid in the winnowing.

Pepper Trail

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Jun 11, 2025, 7:22:59 PMJun 11

to Rogue Valley Birds

Wilson's Snipe have 16 tail feathers, as shown in this scan from The Feather Atlas of North American Birds, which presents the right half of each symmetrical set of tail feathers. https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/feather.php?Bird=WISN_tail_adult&featherIndex=0

The narrow outermost feather is spread away from the rest during the "winnowing" dive, and the vibration produces the sound.

Pepper

Lee French

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Jun 14, 2025, 12:05:41 PMJun 14

to Rogue Valley Birds

I was dismayed yesterday to see the meadow now has a bunch of cows. Life just got much harder for snipe and other ground nesting birds.

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