birding-aus

Aus Painted Snipe behaviour

To: "'David Stowe'" <>
Subject: Aus Painted Snipe behaviour
From: "Tony Russel" <>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 15:05:45 +1030
Well done David. Some nice shots there.

Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of David Stowe
Sent: Tuesday, 4 October 2011 11:19 AM
To: David Stowe
Cc: ; Phil & Sue Gregory
Subject: Aus Painted Snipe behaviour

Further to the Painted Snipe discussion, I had a great day down in Canberra
yesterday visiting a couple of friends and being taken to Jerrabombera
Wetlands to see the Painted Snipe. There are now 3 birds and Tobias Hayashi
and myself spent more than 5 hours in their presence. Sitting quietly in the
mud/grass for some time allowed them to come up to us feeding and even
bathing.
I have uploaded a couple to my pbase site but will add more when I can. Heat
haze made photography difficult but it was an amazing experience to say the
least!!

http://www.pbase.com/davidstowe/painted_snipe
(only the first 3 images are from Canberra at this stage - the others are
from a few years ago)

Cheers
David Stowe



On 01/10/2011, at 5:07 PM, Phil & Sue Gregory wrote:

> 
>> 
>> There was a male Australian Painted Snipe near Mareeba yesterday Sept 30,
on a property with three small dams two of which are quite well vegetated,
the third being smaller and devoid of aquatic vegetation. The bird has been
there over 2 weeks, and the unvegetated small dam is where the bird was
yesterday, sat beside a dead branch and clearly in some kind of disguise
posture as the body was inclined forward at 45 degrees, with the rear end
angled up and the breast feathers actually immersed in the water, as was the
tip of the bill. When we first found the bird the breast and bill were clear
of the water, but the bird dipped slightly forward at a sharper angle into
the water, and seemed to think it was an effective disguise as it was quite
confiding- see photos on Wildiaries at
http://www.wildiaries.com/trips/10750.
>> I was struck by its almost tailless appearance and short wings, with
large rather elliptical eye surrounded by a narrow pale edging, and broad
buffy central crown stripe. The bird remained frozen for some 10 minutes,
then began to preen before then feeding somewhat like a godwit in the
shallow water. I have not seen this species in such an open situation on my
handful of previous sightings, of which two have now been in October in this
area. One other peculiarity was the odd feather shape of what I think were
the wing coverts- the bird was so fluffed out it was hard to tell- but they
looked to have an extended centre vane with just a narrow feather width
around it, sticking out some 5 cm or so from the usual broader feathers, and
maybe old worn and unmoulted feathers.
>> A great sighting, thanks to Lisa and Dominic for permission to go look
for the bird on their property and thanks to Jun and Sae Matsui for the
lift.
>> Phil & Sue Gregory
>> Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com
>> Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au
>> 
>> 
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