No, a crazed gunman wasn’t shooting up a nature preserve. The sniper was me. And I was again watching Wilson’s Snipe, not shooting them.

A Wilson’s Snipe at Papscanee

After burning my retinas identifying every last one of the largest conglomeration of shorebirds (36 Lesser Yellowlegs, 11 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Solitary Sandpiper, a Spotted Sandpiper and 7 Least Sandpipers) I have ever seen at Papscanee Island yesterday some noisy Killdeer drew my attention to the east side of the road, where instead of battling the sun I could use it to my advantage for photography.

Unfortunately, the snipe seemed to realize that the light made them more visible so they stayed further from the road, unlike when the light was bad and they sat close to the road. Someday I will spot snipe both close and in good light, but in the meantime you get to become a sniper too. We’ll start with a relatively easy lesson…can you find the three Wilson’s Snipe below?

Of course you could, that one was pretty easy. I cropped the pic so the birds were bigger and they are all pretty obvious. I’m pretty proud of the next pic though, because I managed to get 6 of the 8 snipe I spotted together in the frame. Can you find all 6?

It was great fun watching these odd little creatures repeatedly probing the mud for worms and whatever else they could find to eat. Papscanee Island really is an amazing place, and more so than usual this year. The melted snow and rains we’ve had really inundated the place and though it is slowly drying out now it is still great habitat for migrating shorebirds and puddle ducks.

If you’ve come this far you must really like snipe. I have only one more pic, one that only contains a single snipe. If you find it you are well on your way to becoming a sniper. Have at it:

Congratulations, sniper! Report at Papscanee Island tomorrow at 0600 for a real-life application of your lessons…