snipe identification help

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piggsyface
piggsyface's picture
snipe identification help

Realising that this may be a difficult one - fairly extreme crop of some kind of snipe, seen here :

https://www.google.com/maps/@-27.4789035,153.0535208,65m/data=!3m1!1e3

Latham's snipeLatham's snipe

We've been removing cane toads and building frog habitat along the site for a couple of years now and quite a lot more bird life has been turining up. Usual fare is herons, egrets, stilts, wagtails, swallows, etc had to look up what this even might be!

Woko
Woko's picture

I'm not a Snipe expert so someone else will need to identify this bird for you. To help with identification can you post your location? 

I'm interested in your cane toad eradication & frog habitat restoration. What method(s) are you using for the former? I have the vague understanding that cane toads quickly recolonise areas from which they've been removed although there are a variety of strategies being developed for dealing with this accursed introduced creature.

Good on you, piggsyface, for restoring wildlife habitat. It's so badly needed in this great nation of ours. 

piggsyface
piggsyface's picture

Hi, there's a google map link there, but if you can't click through or it doesn't work I've attached an image of the location.

I could go on about this for a while but the bullet point lists of what we're doing is:

* treating cane toads as a threat mainly based on their breeding behaviours, which starve out other animals, more than being dangerous in their own right, so patrolling during and immediately after rains and collecting the breeding adults and removing eggs/tadpoles is the main priority.

* identifying, protecting and enhancing ephemeral sources of fresh water that last long enough for native frogs to complete their life cycle. For the radius of suburbs I can cover realistically where I am - 3 of 4 water sources that were available for native frogs to breed in on public land have been smashed by development, storm water control, council waste clearing, etc. We've succeeded in getting council to do some minor digging and assist a community group in creating the pond near where the Snipe was photographed, and that has given everyone involved a lot of useful experience in how to approach similar projects, with another couple being lobbied for at the moment.

* getting council, catchment groups, nurseries, anyone with a vague interest in the subject, to go from (what's usually phrased as) "I don't hear any frogs anymore" to putting in a pond in their yard, or at least being aware of what to look and listen for. The frogid app - https://www.frogid.net.au/ - is an immense source of fun for any parents into nature and going outside also, and that can help us identify where cane toads and frogs are coming from.

Anyway the results so far - at least in the area we're accountable for - we've gone from intercepting 100s of cane toads per week during rains around our sites to intercepting about 5-10 at the most, with frogs going from a few isolated breeding pairs that had repeatedly failed to complete their breeding cycles to a point where we now regularly see juveniles frogs around. The adult cane toads probably do indeed flow back to replace their numbers when adults are removed, however, what we're not seeing anymore are massive moving carpets of 5-7 zeros of tadpoles and juvenile toads competing with natives for the same food sources, and we have a much greater number of non-toxic food sources in the form of native frogs and tadpoles for other animals to eat.

Steven.McBride
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Latham's Snipe.  As far as I'm aware the other near identical ID contenders such as Swinhoe's Snipe & Pin-tailed Snipe have never been recorded this far south on the east coast of Australia.

pip-lb
pip-lb's picture

I agree with Steven, although i'm not familiar with the other species he named. Latham's Snipe was my first thought when i saw the photo.

piggsyface
piggsyface's picture

Thanks for your help!

Woko
Woko's picture

Thanks for the information on your approach to can toad eradication, piggsyface. Most interesting. i wish you every success, not least because I'd hate to see cane toads reach my place in SA! Also, it's great to learn about what others are doing to protect populations of native species by way of habitat restoration & creation. It shows what can be done when motivated people get together. 

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