Latham's Snipe

A recent bird survey at the Drouin Waste Water Treatment Plant in Settlement Rd, conducted by members of the Friends of Drouin’s Trees, resulted in the sighting of a pair of Latham’s Snipe, Gallinago hardwickii.

John Latham was an early English ornithologist whose work coincided with the explorations of James Cook. ‘Gallinago’ is from the Latin for ‘resembling a hen-like bird’. Charles Browne Hardwicke was an English naval lieutenant who settled in Tasmania. He was a horse-racing enthusiast and farmer whose connection with the bird is tenuous – its thought that he probably shot it frequently.

Record of Victorian sightings. Credit: Birdata

Latham’s Snipe is a cryptic migrant from Japan. It breeds in Japan and Eastern Russia during our winter and migrates to Australia via the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, arriving here in our spring. This migratory flight only takes a few days. Some researchers suggest that some birds do the journey in one non-stop flight. The birds depart Australia in late summer to return to their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere.

Latham’s Snipe usually inhabit open freshwater wetlands with low, dense vegetation – swamps, bogs, dams, even roadside drains at times. It is an omnivorous species that uses its long bill to probe for seeds and invertebrates in the mud and shallow water.

Although not listed threatened in Victoria, in January this year, the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act listed the Latham’s Snipe as Vulnerable. The main threat to the species is the loss of habitat, especially the modification of wetland areas by drainage and clearance for agricultural, residential and industrial development. The bushfires and droughts in Australia early this century contributed significantly to a dramatic decline in global numbers of Latham’s Snipe.

The bird has a reputation for being very shy and wary providing a challenge for early sporting shooters - and today’s photographers. Before bans on shooting were introduced in Victoria in 1984, the last state to do so, it is estimated that up to 6000 birds were shot annually in this state alone. In Russia, hunting for Latham’s Snipe still occurs today.

The bird’s recorded at Drouin recently inhabit some wet, tussocky pasture beside the Drouin Waste Water Treatment Plant in Settlement Rd. These paddocks have recently undergone some drainage works in preparation for residential development. Future sightings of Latham’s Snipe in this location are probably questionable.

100 Buln Buln Rd in Drouin is earmarked for a development of 400+ houses. The southern section is ideal Latham’s Snipe habitat!