Just a couple more points from our adventure in the swamp the other night...
Clive Minton made the point that Snipe often have different day & night
roosts/feeding areas, which is consistent with our record of several, and
possibly dozens, flying towards the south (to Lake Connewarre? Hospital
Swamps? The Aquaduct?) from Belmont Common.
The size differences are probably to do with the presence of juveniles.
There seems to be a less observable difference in size between male and
female than occurs in other Snipe (i.e. Swinhoe's & Pintailed). In the
hand, wing and bill length can be used to sex the birds, but not always
reliably due to overlap.
No, we didn't see any Tiger Snakes because a) no self-respecting snake
would be out and about on a night as cool as that; and b) we didn't look
for them under the carpet & felt underlay that's been put down to assist
revegetation. Apparently that's where they like to snuggle up. But if
anyone considers a walk around the Common on a warm day, be prepared to
dodge them or step over them. There were a couple of people bitten here
at the end of last summer :-O so don't wear thongs!!
~~~~~~~8-< ~~~~~~~8-< ~~~~~~~~8-<
(Perhaps you could send your gardner down here to get you some old felt
underlay, Phil H!)
G'night (yawn) all,
Russell Woodford
Geelong
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