Nature Walk: A Snipe in the Grass

Snipe one—Snipe two—Snipe three. If that sounds like a game, it is what often happens when you are walking in a wet grassy meadow and flush a Wilson's snipe. They are commonly found in small groups of half a dozen or more birds and may flush all at once or one at a time flying just a short distance, then dropping like a rock out of sight into dense vegetation. Watch for them probing the muddy shorelines of lake and stream edges with their long pencil-like bill for insect larvae or earthworms.