THIS WEEK’S THEME: A WETLAND IN FIVE BIRDS
Five very different birds reveal five ways of making a living in the wetlands of Merced National Wildlife Refuge.
Scientific name
Gallinago delicata
Taxonomic group
Scolopacidae — Sandpipers & Allies
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A photograph is worth a thousand words, but the story makes it worth a few more.
AT MERCED NWR
One of my earliest memories as a college ornithology student dates back to 1984, when I was enrolled in Ornithology 401 at CSU Stanislaus. During a class field trip to Merced National Wildlife Refuge, our professor pointed out a Common Snipe sitting quietly in the vegetation along the edge of one of the ponds.
I had a surprisingly difficult time finding it. The bird was right there, but its streaked brown plumage blended so perfectly with the surrounding vegetation that it seemed to disappear whenever I looked away.
The name itself made the encounter even more memorable. As soon as I heard “snipe,” I thought back to the infamous “snipe hunts” I’d been sent on as a Boy Scout years earlier. This time, however, there really was a snipe at the end of the search.
The bird we knew then as the Common Snipe is now recognized here as the Wilson’s Snipe. More than four decades later, whenever I encounter one tucked into the vegetation at Merced NWR, I still think back to that first bird I struggled so hard to see.
IMAGE DETAILS
LOCATION INFORMATION: Merced National Wildlife Refuge · Merced County, California · February 2, 2022
EQUIPMENT INFORMATION: Canon EOS R5 · Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM
SETTINGS INFORMATION: 500mm · ƒ/7.1 · 1/1250 sec · ISO 640