Latham's, Swinhoe's and Pintail... a good month for snipe.

September was very much a staying local month, covering a small stretch of my old patch at Ogura. Mainly because I didn't have the time to do otherwise, and not seeing that much for my efforts if truth be told. I've seen some quite spectacular wader passages here over the years but 2022 won't be going down as one to remember.

I covered a relatively small part of the overall area on nine dates through the month, seeing snipe other than Common on eight of them; this after making several visits throughout August when no migrant snipe were recorded. Actually, my first non-Common snipe were two birds (probably Swinhoe's) in Mie on 2 Sept though I had already seen a party of three Latham's there in August.

As far as confirming ID was concerned, all the following birds were 'tail-checked'. I saw a total of six Latham's, four Swinhoe's, one probable Pintail and a few swintail. As I only covered a relatively small area, it's reasonable to infer numbers passing through would have been much greater. There were also many Common, up to 10 per visit but even these disappeared in October suggesting all were migrants rather than birds that will winter here.

LATHAM'S SNIPE

(5 Aug - three adults together)

(8 Sept - two adults together)

(20 Sept - single adult)

PINTAIL SNIPE

(21 Sept) Flushed by a Siberian weasel soon after I found it. I already suspected this could prove to be a Pintail and this image taken just before it takes flight appears to show pins in the spread tail. The weasel's ears are visible in the grass just to the left of the tail.

SWINHOE'S SNIPE

(22 Sept)

(28 Sept) The only juvenile/first winter.

(28 Sept) Adult

(30 Sept)

COMMON SNIPE

(20 Sept) They did exist!

Finally, I can't resist throwing this in just because it has 'snipe' in the name. These are local breeders and there were males with tiny chicks running round in September.

Greater Painted Snipe

 

Swinhoe's, Pintail and Latham's Snipe this autumn

Of the three snipe species in the title, Latham's and Swinhoe's are clearly the commoner migrants passing through the Kansai region. However, much further south, on a recent trip to Ishigaki, six of the seven identified snipe were Pintail, suggesting they're mainly entering (and exiting) Japan to the south of Honshu. I feel fortunate to have had so many good views of all three species within a short period of time, it's been an important refresher on migrant snipe identification; there can never be too much time spent watching snipe. 

I already posted shots of a Latham's seen well a couple of weeks ago, the only one of the trio passing through the region that breeds in Japan. A couple of weeks later I managed some great shots of a Swinhoe's, also in Mie Prefecture, in another of the few fields that offer both good habitat for snipe and viewing conditions.

The Swinhoe's scurried away along a muddy furrow, below the grassy bund, before I'd even pulled up to scan the field, but after 40 metres it crouched, mostly hidden, under the overhanging grass. From the views I'd had of it disappearing along the field edge it was clearly a swintail, and it had a distinct Swinhoe's feel. Knowing it was bound to re-emerge to feed before too long, I settled down to wait. Not only did it soon re-emerge but, to my surprise, made a beline back towards its original position, right where I was waiting. Ultimately it disappeared beneath the grassy field edge three metres to my right. I walked over the spot, I'd have been less than a metre from the bird, along the entire edge of the field and back, but it didn't show itself again.

After coming out hiding, it made straight towards me, I couldn't believe my luck. But views became much, much better.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the head shape can change from one second to the next. 

It doesn't get much better than this; zero doubt about the identity now. Not the upward, warning tail flash (which it had done earlier in response to a low-flying crow), but this spread seemed to signal caution because of my close proximity, without being an overt threat. Not something I've seen before.

The freshly moulted brownish-buff coverts seem to blend seamlessly with the similarly hued scapular fringes and the ground colour of the flanks, creating a very uniform impression. As the feathers age they become much whiter but the lack of contrast remains. 

Next, a couple of juvenile Pintail (pins seen) on Ishigaki.

A classic-looking juvenile Pintail; this is the kind of bird responsible for the notion all Pintails look short-billed, short-tailed, are dumpy, round-headed and have skinny legs. Like the bird below, the lateral crown stripes are densely flecked rusty, note the narrow, white (juvenile) scapular fringes and the very narrow parallel black 'inner fringe' between the largely rusty feather centre and the even white fringe. 

The next bird is an adult Pintail which, though not seen as well, is of interest, showing the extent of post-breeding moult before migration.

This bird spent a lot of time sunbathing, in fact I never saw it feed all afternoon, the upshot being the pins were frequently on view.

It's another classically short-billed bird, and note how the adult also shows extensive and obvious rusty flecks in the lateral crown stripes. I've yet to see a Swinhoe's that can match this appearance. 

Still happily sunbathing and giving the opportunity to see the extent of primary moult. There are five replaced inner primaries and three retained outers, there's a corresponding degree of moult in the primary coverts. The secondaries are unmoulted. I suppose there must be a benefit in this moult strategy, though I'd have thought a long distance migration with full flight feathers would be more energy efficient.

The following bird (in the same field as the above adult Pintail) is a Swinhoe's in my opinion, but I wasn't able to get confirmatory views of the outer tail feathers. This would be the only Swinhoe's I saw on Ishigaki, all others seen well enough to identify were Pintail.

Compared to the first Swinhoe's, this is a more faded bird, the flanks through coverts to scapular fringes are equally lacking in contrast, just paler overall. 

Almost caught the outer tail feathers here; almost but not quite. Don't be fooled by the misplaced uppertail covert masquerading as an outmost Latham's-type tail feather. What I can see of this seems to be three narrower outermost feathers, a prominent white corner (and tips to central feathers), but also a relatively broad area of white extending towards the base. There seems altogether far too much white in the outertail for a Pintail. I could be wrong, but also I could be wrong about this and it still be a Swinhoe's. 

 

I followed the snipe into the next field, where it, fortunately, hadn't ventured too far into the more luxuriant veg. This and the following shot are another good example of how the apparent head shape can change in the blink of an eye, and how unreliable judging structure from photographs can be. Notice how few rusty flecks there are in the lateral crown stripes, another pointer towards Swinhoe's.

Thick, yellow legs are another point in favour of Swinhoe's.

The aggregation of singly inconclusive features in favour of a Swinhoe's identification is making a strong case when, by way of contrast nothing is leaning towards Pintail. 

this spring's snipes and woodcocks

I haven't done any dedicated sniping this spring so I'm a bit low on my usual haul, however a spring Solitary (May 4!) is a first.


I was told that the Asamo Valley (Tsushima) used to be a regular site for Solitary in February and March but that there hasn't been a record for three years.


There had been torential rain overnight, the Met Office high resolution nowcasts normally show quite limited areas being hit by the very heaviest rain, but that night extensive sheets of red covered the map from parts of ROK, through Tsushima and well into Kyushu. The whole region had thunder storm alerts and they rolled in and out in a dazzling, and sometimes very loud, display. The upshot was some lanes more resembled streams than anything else the following morning, It seemed the Snipe agreed, and if it hadn't been for the extreme weather I don't doubt we would never have seen this great bird.

By the time we spotted the bird and stopped we were almost on top of it. Being a passenger I had to squirm my whole upper torso out the window and twist round to manage this shot of the bird on the drivers side. I'm quite pleased with the result. 

Fortunately it came across onto my side of the lane and waded up through the flowing water.

If the road hadn't resembled a stream, we'd never have connected with this bird.

This Swintail's features ticked all the boxes on the Swinhoe's side of the line, bar seeing the outer tail feathers this is as close as you can be to a certain identification of a bird on the ground. This is a very dark-winged bird, even the freshest looking (inner) coverts are quite worn.

You have to be cautious with the Swintail, of course. I had this one pegged as a relatively short-billed Swinhoe's in April of last year... Again, boxes ticked.

But what a differnce a change of posture can make, could it be a Pintail after all?

As you were; outer tail feathers to the rescue.

This snipe was on an raised paddy and the views were very brief but I'd put it down as Latham's on what I did see. Latham's in Hokkaido a week or two later were easily identified of course... whatever did they do before the advent of utility poles?

A noteable feature of this spring was that I was able to get multiple close views of both Japan's woodcock species, Eurasian in Hokkaido and Amami... quite. The Eurasian put on a good display, roding each early evening while the light was still quite good. Usually a single bird but occasionally a second bird would join in close formation. They could generally be heard into the early night and again pre-dawn.



Amami above, Eurasian below, they really don't look alike.



Neither snipe nor woodcock, but it is brown. I saw four Little Whimbrels when last I visited Tsushima, only the one this time. Nevertheless it would appear the island is as good a spot as any in Japan to catch up with this elegant wader.

Views were better last time too.