The heavy rain kindly eased as we started the count this morning but we were walking though a lot of standing water in the marshes. The snipe however seemed quite happy with the conditions on the reserve, with an excellent total of 81 flushed (breakdown: Hay Meadow 1 common; School Pond 19 common and 1 jack; Big Meadow 45 common and 15 jack). The difference in the behaviour of jack and common snipe was very marked. Common snipe can go up en masse, many metres away. The team were taken by surprise when barely entering School Pond caused a group to burst out of the rush and scatter. Impossible to be confident of exactly how many, so the consensus was 15. In contrast, jacks hang on until the last moment and so tend to go up singly. Most were found at the end of the route through Big Meadow, and seemed to be favouring the clearing areas within the marsh. Several times a jack snipe narrowly avoided being trodden on by the next step.
Queens Award for Voluntary Service