Fourth Attempt at the Jack Snipe - on 18th January, 2019

I'd only, as far as I can remember, had three sightings of Jack Snipe in my life - twice in the Scillies and once as Cossington Meadows, Leicestershire. However, I'd recently had three attempts, without success, at seeing the Jack Snipe that has been showing regularly from Crake Hide at Rutland Water.

We had an extended period of dismal weather, culminating in a fall of snow on the night of 17th January. I was getting stir-crazy, having not had a sensible birding session for over a week, and decided something had to be done about it - I'd have another attempt at the Jack Snipe. So off I set mid-morning (I'd had a late night the previous day) on the Friday.

I took my usual rural route and spotted a Buzzard in a field near Hungarton. The snow had all but totally disappeared by then.

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) - near Hungarton

I stopped for an early picnic lunch at my usual place, and was delighted to see the Little Owl there again. Sadly the light was awful - as was the photography!

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my LO Site No.34

As the prime objective was the Jack Snipe, I made my way directly to Crake Hide, not stopping at any of the intermediate hides on the way. The hide was empty when I got there, but I was soon joined by another person. It was quite a while before my companion suddenly spotted movement in the reeds about 40 metres away and confirmed it was a Jack Snipe. It took me a while to find it through my binoculars at this distance, and even longer to find it through the camera lens. We must have watched it for well over half an hour before it totally disappeared from sight, and it never once emerged from the reeds! 

This fairly well illustrates what I could see through the binoculars on one of its more 'showing' positions:-

Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus) - from Crake Hide, Rutland Water

And this is the one occasion I managed to catch it showing its diagnostic dark stripe on the crown and a short bill:-

Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus) - from Crake Hide, Rutland Water

I stayed for approximately another hour, during which time the only shots I took were of Little Egret.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - from Crake Hide, Rutland Water

At least I'd seen the Jack Snipe, even if I hadn't got any decent photos. I then set off to see what I could find at some of the other hides.

I didn't get further than Shoveler Hide before I got stalled by what was there. I've always thought Great Crested Grebes look fabulous in their summer plumage, but rather uninteresting in the winter. A relatively close view of a bird on this day changed my mind. I thought it looked wonderful!

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) - from Shoveler Hide, Rutland Water

Great Egret has now become firmly established at Rutland Water, and it seems that several of this species have decided to over-winter there. I suspect that we might get them breeding in 2019. This species is now as common as Little Egret was a few years ago. Here are a couple of images of Great Egret from that day.

Great Egret (Ardea alba) - from Shoveler Hide, Rutland Water

I'm not very good with the less common ducks but, while scanning around, I saw what I think might have been a female Scaup. It might have just been a female Tufted Duck with a large white base to the bill, or it could have been a Tufted Duck x Scaup. I'd welcome any opinions on the matter. It stayed at a great distance.

possible female Scaup - from Shoveler Hide, Rutland Water

While looking at the above bird, I also saw another duck which I am not able to positively ID, although I suspect that it's a female or juvenile Pochard - comments welcome!

possible Pochard - from Shoveler Hide, Rutland Water

Goosander are far from uncommon in these parts at this time of year, but I don't often get the chance to photograph one at relatively close quarters. I was, therefore, delighted when this female appeared in front of me and had a spell of preening. In the fourth image, I think she is trying to disguise herself as a dead fish!

Goosander (Mergus merganser) (female) - from Shoveler Hide, Rutland Water

I couldn't stop late as, that evening, I was attending a talk by a good friend on the subject of a photographic trip he'd made to Costa Rica (great talk!). I made a quick visit into all the other hides at this side of the reserve in the hope of finding Smew, but was unsuccessful. I then had to take the quick route home and saw nothing more of interest. It had, however, been another extremely enjoyable afternoon at Rutland Water - and I had seen the Jack Snipe (just!).

I suspect that my next post will feature a return to my garden wildlife. 

Thank you for dropping by.