Japanese Visitor

Today’s topic features a bird that is rare in our district, but then it is rare nearly everywhere. The Latham’s Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) with striking stripes and a long beak flies to Australia from Japan each Summer and feeds along grassy waterways and edges of swamps and lakes.

They are a shy and cryptic bird. Usually, they spot you … well before you spot them. Once you get within about 20 metres or so they are off in a zig-zagging whirr. It was considered a great skill to shoot them in the old days before hunting was outlawed. Their eyes are strategically placed to enable them to see up and behind almost as well as ahead.

I saw one up Deepdene Rd in a wetland overflow. That’s typical: a bit of water, a lot of grass, sometimes on mudflats probing the mud with that strong beak. This summer there have been reports of significant numbers of Latham’s Snipe in some wetland areas; it’s a good year for them. So I hope more are found in the district this year.

Latham’s Snipe are non-breeding visitors to Australia, tripping down to the south-east of the continent from their breeding grounds in Japan and Russia. It’s a remarkably long trip, and one female was fitted with a tracking device. She flew three days non-stop from Japan to northern Australia.

The birds leave again to head north in late February/early March, arriving back in their breeding grounds in Japan and far-eastern Russia by April/May. The entire global population, estimated to be somewhere between 25,000 and 100,000 individuals, is thought to visit Australia during our warmer months.

It’s always magical to spot a snipe. There are even rarer ones on our continent – Painted Snipe, Pintail Snipe – but this one (that you are most likely to see) is distinguished and rare enough to be greatly rewarding.