Great Snipe

What an amazing bird. Tonight, in the company of about 30 Danish birders (the second biggest 'twitch' I have attended after the Glaucous-winged Gull), I was fortunate enough to hear and (briefly) see the Great Snipe at Vestamager.

I arrived on site at about 2000 with the sun almost down and with a brisk westerly wind. Fortunately the cloud had broken quite a bit (apparently overcast conditions reduce the likelihood of Great Snipe lekking). About 20 people were there already and, slowly, the numbers built to 30 plus. At about 2050 the Great Snipe was heard and, over the next 20-25 minutes it displayed around 15-20 times at around 50-75 metres distance. The display is a bizarre series of clicks - some liken it to a bouncing table tennis ball - during which time it puffs out its chest and flashes its white tail feathers. A few minutes after it began displaying, despite the failing light, someone managed to find the bird on the ground in a telescope. The views were poor - mostly just a shape in the grass - but it was clearly the bird. I managed to find it in my telescope and watched it briefly move through the 10-15cm high grass with only the neck and head of the bird visible. At about 2115 it fell silent and, after a short unsuccessful wait to see if it would restart, I left the site at 2130. Brilliant - my first Great Snipe. Big thanks to Stefan for finding it.

Video below of the anticipating crowd at around 2030 (unfortunately it was too dark, and views too distant, to video the bird itself!).

EDIT: this evening (Sunday) I visited the site again and, this time, Franck Ishøj (he must have telescopic eyes) found the Great Snipe on the ground whilst it was still light and we watched it feed and move through the grass for around an hour before it began to display. Amazingly, we saw it leap into the air several times - almost like a flea - and flash its wings. Absolutely stunning.

Great Snipe 'twitch', Vestamager, 17 April 2010 from Terry Townshend on Vimeo.