Copyright © 1995, Don Baccus
All images copyright © 1995, Don Baccus
Those of you who were once Boy Scouts were probably introduced to various practical jokes organized as "snipe hunts." I grew up believing that snipe were either mythical creatures, extinct or very rare.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Common snipe are, well, downright common here. They can be found in all the flooded fields and shallow areas of marshes in the area.
I generally use two common techniques for finding snipe. The easiest, during spring, is to simply stop by a flooded field and listen for their unique "winnowing" sound and then view them in their territorial flight. The second method is to watch fenceposts carefully while birding or photographing from my car. Like willet, snipe often perch on them. Listen for their "keek-keek-keek" call too, which they make while perched.
Snipe are relatively easy to photograph. When perched on fenceposts they can often be approached closely by car. Look carefully for feeding or resting snipe in areas which are barely flooded and have new vegetative growth. These too can often be easily photographed from the car.
Snipe are especially plentiful and fenceposts particularly numerous along the roads bordering the flooded fields of Burns and Diamond.
An especially pleasant place to listen to snipe winnowing in the late afternoon is the front porch of the hotel in Frenchglen .
