On a Brighter Note (now Snipe vs Plovers)

[duckboy]

SO the High Pressure blues have your favorite Duck spots iced over and you and the dog are freezing cold?


Bring along some steel trap loads and Get out and gun the Wiley and Teal like (in flight) Wilson's Snipe.


These guys will get your blood pumping as you walk along with your pup.

A good way to break up the long spells between sets of ducks, or to salvage a slow hunt for your favorite furry hunting partner.

These birds will flush and then many times come back to the same general area over and over until you are able to knock them down.


Enjoy the Snipage!


This is good!


This is not good, it is a ploverbut since they winter in the South Seas of the Pacific, you will not run into any of them here.

[baltz526]

what do they taste like

[duckboy]

Dove/Duck

Long twitch Muscle fiber made for Migrating.

[gottafish]

Looks like a plover to me?

[DukAddict]

Duckboy really wanted to shoot a few of those long billed birds today but I wasnt going to let him. Good thing we held out for the ducks, it payed off :smile:

Brett Neffendorf

[duckboy]

It is a wilson's snipe.

Plover are not legal to shoot.

Least not here.

[baumer]

you have to be very carefull in identifying these birds. I learned the hard way. Thought I was shooting a snipe and it turned out to be a dowitcher, which are very common on the island. Unless you have a keen eye and have experience hunting these I would stick to the ducks.



This is a dowitcher, would you be able to tell the difference from this with the picture above in a split second to shoot?

[baltz526]

arn't dowitchers three times the size of a snipe

[sliverpicker]

I photographed this one at the Malheur Refuge, my bird book identified it as a Common Snipe. Is this the same critter, or are they more common in the Great Basin?

[Salmo trutta]

what do they taste like

Chicken!!

I couldn't resist.

[duckboy]

:smile:

[Mark Vickers]

Sniping is totally fun. I'm pleased that it seems to be an obscure target species for most folks.

Yep, there are lots of birds out there that are pretty similar, but you can generally tell by a combination of where you find them (6" or less of standing water in flooded fields), looks (as shown above), and the distinctive call when they flush.

Downside? The birds stink (literally) and you get about a tablespoon of meat off of each breast, and that's about it.

If you plan on hunting Wilson's snipe make sure you can tell them from a dowitcher. They are about the same size and look similar but dowitcher are protected.

[Flying Roast Beef]

One thing about snipe. They fly very very erratically. Almost like they cannot make up their mind where to go.

[duckboy]

I suppose that when you have a brain the size of a pencil eraser, and you are going 30 mph through marsh rushes, it can be a bit overwhelming.(((((i'm talking about the bird here))))

[thehunt]

I was one [petunias!] off puppy when the moved the season back to concurrent with ducks. I have never had such a fun February as the one I spent hunting snipe. I was hunting them three days a week and fully addicted. They don't replace hunting ducks and geese but you are very right, the are a TON of fun.

[billc_sbio]

This might help...

On the Snipe vs. the Dowitchers, usually you won't SEE the Snipe before it flushes. :shocked:

Then it flies with a very erratic, zig zag pattern, often diving right back at the ground, often close by!

They usually flush as singles, but sometimes there may be more than one in the same close proximity, but they won't fly together.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

[duckboy]

in the voice of ed mcmahon "Yes! You are correct sir"

[billc_sbio]

in the voice of ed mcmahon "Yes! You are correct sir"

Good!

Glad I've been shooting (at) the right birds all these years! :grin: