When I awoke this morning I saw a Redwing feeding on my holly tree but later in the morning I couldn't believe my eyes when I was sliding down Cherry Tree Way, there in front of me about 20 yards away flew in a Common Snipe, it landed on the snow covered road, pecked at something and flew off. I recall a young Mute Swan landing exhausted here a few years ago, it was collected by the RSPCA. Anyone else seen a Snipe in a residential area?
A very unusual sighting indeed, probably indicating the struggle Snipe have to find unfrozen ground to probe at the moment. I've not seen a Snipe in the garden (on Belmont Road in Bolton) though I had a Woodcock a year or two ago. Snipe feed in the wet field behind our house. I hear them calling often in the morning. A neighbour told me just before Christmas that he could see about 20 Snipe feeding at a particularly wet area just over his garden fence.
