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There were 2 woodcocks sighted last evening in the wooded area across from
Horseshoe Island on Quinpool
-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of Stephen Shaw
Sent: April 2, 2015 2:11 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: [NatureNS] Woodcock versus Snipe
Going to our car parked on our blacktop driveway in Halifax this morning, I
surprised an unfamiliar small bird with a long bill which flew up and landed
further up the driveway and just rested there. It presumably was a
woodcock, more likely than a snipe. We got a good look at it but because of
the strong backlighting from sunlight reflected off the blacktop, couldn't
make out details of the plumage to be sure. It had a drop of fluid on the
end of the bill, presumably a product of the salt gland? We thought it
might have been exhausted, but it didn't wish to be captured and flew off
strongly.
In looking this up in Sibley (2000), the snipe alternative is called a
common snipe, Gallinago gallinago, but in a 2008 Smithsonian book that's a
Eurasian rarity and the one here is identified as Wilson's snipe, G.
delicata. Is the later book's identification of the snipe species current?
It's zero pickings for a woodcock here at present still with a couple of
feet of snow, but my daughter says that the mud flats on the nearby
Northwest Arm here are exposed, so there would be a possibility to feed
there. Would a woodcock normally forage at tidal mudflats on the edge of
saltwater? You'd wonder how much fat could be left on a migrant's body to
see it through until the snow melts, or not.
Steve
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