Snipes in the air!

Anyone walking through the Wetlands on these summer evenings will hear the strange sound of the snipe as it dives through the air. This sound is made by its outer tail feathers and the sound has been likened to that of a kid goat – hence its name in Irish “An Gabhairin” or the little goat. The sound is made by the male during the breeding season and the perched male shown here makes a chucka-chucka call. If you stumble across the snipe as you walk along the paths it explodes into the air in a zig-zag flight, with a rasping ‘creech’ call. Its plumage is brown, with golden-buff and black stripes on the head and back and white edges to its tail. It uses that long beak to probe in the mud for worms and invertebrates, the sensitive tip helping it feel for prey. The snipe has the extraordinary ability to open the tip of its bill while the rest remains closed. Hidden amidst vegetation the nest usually contains four eggs, olive-brown with dark blotches. After 20 days the young hatch and leave the nest almost immediately, able to fly after just two weeks and fully grown after seven. The snipe is the bird of the wetlands and the natural choice for our logo.