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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/snipe111106as.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I went looking for grizzlies, but found a snipe.<\/p>\n
The Wilson’s Snipe is a secretive shorebird that probes the water’s edge to capture and eat invertebrate larvae. When approached, it flushes with a rapid and erratic flight. This is not a bird that wants to be noticed — it wants nothing to do with you.<\/p>\n
A Wilson’s Snipe hides along the shore.
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Yet, in late May for three years running, I have seen one perched prominently on a snag (and the same snag) next to a wetland. What prompts this abrupt change in behaviour from introvert to extravert?<\/p>\n
On May 29, 2019, a Wilson’s Snipe perched prominently on a snag next to a wetland.\u00a0
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/snipe190529s2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Then on May, 23, 2020, the Wilson’s Snipe was chattering away from the same snag.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/snipe200523s.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Again yesterday (May, 25, 2021) the snipe was back on the same snag.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/snipe210525s2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
What prompts a normally timid bird to become an extravert each May? The answer came from the Audubon Society<\/a>, which explained:<\/p>\n The Wilson’s Snipe becomes more flamboyant in the breeding season, when it often yammers from atop a fencepost or dead tree.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ah, this seems to a case of how a compulsion for courting can alter one’s behaviour.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I went looking for grizzlies, but found a snipe. The Wilson’s Snipe is a secretive shorebird that probes the water’s edge to capture and eat invertebrate larvae. When approached, it flushes with a rapid and erratic flight. This is … Continue reading \n