Jack Snipe Research Group @jacksnipestudy

It was great to present our Jack Snipe Tagging Project at yesterday's @UC_Sparsholt Research Conference & for third year BSc students to present their own dissertation research. We'll have further updates in the near future, so please keep a look out for new posts.

We'll be at the West Midland Bird Club Open Day tomorrow with a display and presentation on our Jack Snipe Tagging Project. We look forward to seeing you there. @_BTO

West Midland Bird Club @WestMidBirdClub

5 months ago

We'll be at the West Midland Bird Club Open Day tomorrow with a display and presentation on our Jack Snipe Tagging Project. We look forward to seeing you there. @_BTO

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We are excited to welcome you all to our Open Day TOMORROW! 🥳 Here is the full programme of events happening throughout the day. There will also be an activity for children to take part in on the West Lawn.

We are very excited to invite both members & non-members to our very first WMBC Open Day!! 🥳 📅 Saturday 26th April 2025 ⏰10am - 4pm 📍 Middleton Hall & Gardens The event is FREE and no booking is required. Everyone is welcome. We look forward to seeing you all there! ✨

Find out more by visiting the Jack Snipe gazebo on the West Lawn during the Open Day. 📅 Saturday 26th April ⏰ 10am - 4pm 📍 Middleton Hall & Gardens

Come and find out about the Jack Snipe project at our WMBC Open Day! Jack Snipe are probably our most elusive and least understood bird, but this project, part-funded by WMBC, uses new technology to investigate winter foraging & day roosting behaviour, habitat use and migration.

We fitted tags funded by @UC_Sparsholt to 5 Jack Snipe in Hampshire, extending our research project's scope. The aims are to reveal where birds roost & feed, show if they exhibit site fidelity & identify migration routes & stopover sites. @bbcmtd feature youtu.be/tkHy-5EdM-o

Great to team up with @spurnbirdobs in a joint Motus Tracking Project on Jack Snipe (supported by @britishbirds). The first birds were tagged in the #LDV last night and we're now looking forward to seeing what results this project unearths - thanks to everyone involved.

Last winter, we fitted tags to 10 Jack Snipe in Staffordshire to track their movements & we recently recaught one that migrated to Latvia - we believe this is the first tracked migration of a UK Jack Snipe youtu.be/tkHy-5EdM-o @_BTO

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We don't know much about UK Jack Snipe (or Snipe), as discussed in this WaderTales blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/sni… One GPS-tagged Jack Snipe reveals a little more: rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/UK_… Article from @RareBirdAlertUK #ornithology

Our Hampshire team has been searching for suitable dayroosts to monitor. It looks like one they've found may be just the ticket: in a quick visit with a thermal imager, they found 12 Jack Snipe. We'll be joining them to start a systematic survey programme @Sparsholt_Coll @_BTO

One interesting dimension to our Jack Snipe tagging project is that the data are revealing that birds regularly use a matrix of dayroost & night feeding sites all within c10km radius. We've already found 2 dayroosts we were previously unaware of, so we'll now be monitoring these.

Last winter, with @NaturalEngland funding, we fitted GPS tags to 10 Jack Snipe in the Midlands Heathland Heartland project area in Staffordshire & West Midlands. One bird has just been recaught: its migration took it to Germany, Poland & Latvia before returning to Staffordshire.

Thermal imaging cameras are an essential piece of kit in our Jack Snipe surveys. However, we plan to monitor the birds' return to their usual roosting areas as the water subsides by conducting a systematic survey of the site with a thermal imaging drone. How are others doing?

Our other dayroost site is larger, but again we've seen fewer birds, though we saw 26 on our last visit. The main roost area consists of grasses & sedges, but has flooded recently. Jack Snipe have moved 5-25m to clearer areas amongst Heather. Has anyone seen anything similar?

The 24/25 winter census of Jack Snipe at our longstanding Staffordshire dayroost site has seen disappointingly low single figure numbers - we've counted up to 50 birds/visit some years. Are these low numbers a local phenomenon or part of a wider pattern? @_BTO @WaderStudy

How have everyone’s numbers been this winter at your sites? A day roost site we monitor every 10 days had #jacksnipe arriving in single figures until mid December. Then a mix of only 21. In previous years max has been mid Nov with numbers up to 40+