Snipe

I was relieved to find out most of my wooden boxes in the studio had not been destroyed by the flood. I have a half day today at work and they take the garbage tomorrow so I should be able to get some of the wet cardboard and cured plaster and cement out. I had to store the plaster on the floor. I wonder how many days I should wait before I try the power tools that got wet.

Animal
photo by omarun

It occurs to me that a lot of people are not aware that snipes are a real animal. The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) is an odd looking shorebird that ranges from North America to Europe. I'm not sure why one would want to catch one in a bag during a camping trip. They are considered game birds and apparently very difficult for hunters to shoot as they fly very quickly and in an erratic zig zag pattern. Hunters that hunt for snipe generally need to be a very accurate long range shot to kill them hence the term "sniper". The term "sniper" became a military term in 1824 when it was generically used to refer to a "sharpshooter". As far as the snipe itself they typically live in marshes and eat small invertebrates they dredge up with their specialized bill. They male makes a strange sound with it's feathers during a mating display that has also earn the bird the nickname "the sky goat". They have interesting parental care the clutch is generally 4 egg after they have hatched the male leaves with two chicks and the female cares for the other two the two families generally do not reunite.

Dancing snipe video