A successful Snipe hunt!

The vast majority of what we catch at the ASI banding station is small songbirds like sparrows and warblers. However, sometimes our nets yield a surprise like this Wilson’s Snipe! Snipe are shorebirds that breed in wetlands all across Alaska. They have nerve endings inside their long bills to help them locate insects as they probe in mud and under water. Snipe are most noticeable in the spring when the males conduct song flights to establish a nesting territory and attract a female. The whistle of wind through the male bird’s wing feathers creates the winnowing noise we hear all through spring and early summer nights as the birds soar high over marshes. The female’s cryptic coloration makes her almost invisible on her ground nest. If you walk along the seasonal pond at Creamer’s Field, you may be lucky enough to see a snipe probing the mud for high energy insect food to fuel their southbound migration.

~Laurel