Snipe on the shore

Photo by Dave Kemp

COMMON SNIPE

(Gallinago gallinago)

The photo of the Common Snipe (above) was taken by my friend Dave Kemp in British Columbia's lower mainland.   Dave said there's were probably two dozen of these birds in this location and he got so close to them he had to back up to get them properly focused.   In a different time and place, here's part of what Janice M. Hughes, in her 2001 Royal Ontario Museum Field Guide to Birds of Ontario, had to say about Common Snipes: "Snipe population were drastically reduced by over-hunting in the nineteenth century.   Although the species appears to have recovered , one may question if annual takes of 500,000 to 1,000,000 individuals in recent decades, in concert with loss of wetland habitat, are sustainable".   It is estimated that the Canadian population of migrating and breeding snipes is one million birds.   They were rated at 'least concern' by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List in 2016.   
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BarrytheBirder