Japanese Snipe aka Latham's

2nd October 2013

I have been busy for the last few days with Snipes in my local patch, Tuaran after the recent Typhoon Usagi from Japan resulting of heavy wind plus rain almost everyday since Thursday the 26th September except for today.

Every time I see Snipe sp. in my place, I never bother to put an effort to observe because of the difficulty in identifying them. Except the last Common Snipe I saw at Penampang paddy field during in flight which showed the white line on the armpit.

But one particular Snipe sp. took my attention. It looked much paler than other Snipes I have seen before and quite bigger too. So I pointed my scope for pictures and videos. Thanks to the wide Field of View from Swarovski STX 95 scope even at maximum 70x, I could clearly see and Digiscoped exactly as seen from the eyepiece! Below is the results.

Digiscoped with Swarovski STX 95 + TLS APO + Nikon V1 ~ at 70x = 5670mm!

 

As you can see, the bird above show mostly pale plumage overall. I sent this pictures to Dave Bakewell, one of the prominent Waterbirds watchers in Penang and his first impression was of Japanese Snipe!

Emails was exchanged between experts in Japan and Australia where this bird breeds in Hokaiddo and Russia then spend the non-breeding season in Eastern Australia. Mostly were saying it looks like the Japanese Snipe.

Ok hold on... Only 3 Snipes were recorded in Borneo namely the Pintail, Swinhoe's and Common Snipe. If these pictures were reconfirmed to be the Japanese Snipe, as Dave mentioned to me, it could be the first record for Sabah, Borneo!

Video of the Snipe at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PZ0Dfz2FMA&list=UUqKA6Jvs2wo4S244reTVxzA

I'm still waiting for answers from friends in Japan and Korea. Any clues or answers is greatly appreciated :D

Good birding!

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