1st Ishigaki Snipe Camp!! [Day 1]
I took the liberty of organizing the 1st Ishigaki Island Snipe Camp, complete with a complimentary invitation to Shimasoba-so.
For this inaugural event I was joined by a contributor who writes the field identification articles on snipe for BIRDER magazine. The Pin-tailed Snipes and Swinhoe's Snipes of Ishigaki seemed to hold genuine interest even for a professional eye. During the camp I received a direct lecture on migration timing and moult characteristics of Latham's Snipe and Swinhoe's Snipe from the mainland — extremely educational. As someone who writes about identification, the way they put the distinguishing features into words was precise and impressive.
The results were excellent. We observed large numbers of Pin-tailed Snipe and the so-called western-type Swinhoe's Snipe that are commonly found in the Nansei Islands, including both adults and juveniles. Despite spending nearly all our time on snipe, the by-catch was good too: 2 Javan Pond Herons, the season's first juvenile Common Greenshank and juvenile Green Sandpiper, juvenile Red-necked Stints, and a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.
On day one I met the participants at the airport at around 1:30 p.m. and had the first Pin-tailed Snipe in the bag just after 2:00 p.m. We watched until 6:00 p.m. I am posting photos of the 10 Pin-tailed Snipes we managed to photograph. Day 2 and the bonus post are covered in separate articles.
I intend to keep running snipe camps in the future. Announcements will appear here on the blog and on social media. The planned timing is around late August, when both adults and juveniles are present and moult variation is at its richest. I would also like to hold one during the spring migration (early to mid-April), when other birds, waders and plovers are enjoyable too, if there is enough interest.
The very first Swinhoe's Snipe of the training camp encountered in conditions like this…. ^^; A valuable adult.
Second individual — a juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe.
Another juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. Finding them steadily. ^^
Adult Swinhoe's Snipe. The scapulars have already moulted into winter plumage.
Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. The fifth Swinhoe's Snipe of the day.
Juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. As with Pintail Snipe, juveniles far outnumber adults.
Extremely distant juvenile Swinhoe's Snipe. The most common plumage type among autumn juveniles on Ishigaki-jima.
The eighth Swinhoe's Snipe on the first day. Another juvenile.
The closest Swinhoe's Snipe of the first day. A juvenile. It was a particularly small and charming individual even within the flock. There was another bird that looked so similar I thought they might be siblings.
Same individual as above. Most birds that day were too busy foraging to preen much, but I managed to get a view of the tail feathers.
Same individual as above. A beautiful bird with fresh juvenile plumage — moult not progressed at all.
This was the tenth Pin-tailed Snipe of the first day, the last individual of the session. We wrapped up at 6:00 p.m. because there was a barbecue get-together at my place afterwards.
Swinhoe's Snipe, juvenile.
Swinhoe's Snipe juvenile in the distance. Swinhoe's outnumbered Pin-tailed on the day, but since I was focused on finding Pin-tailed, photos of Swinhoe's ended up being an afterthought… ^^;
