16/01/07 Latham's (Japanese) snipe, Gallinago hardwickii, at the Whangamarino Swamp, Waikato

Brent was leading a Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ 21-day tour, and stopped in at the Whangamarino Swamp on his way south from Miranda. At a stop on Falls Road, just south of the Whangamarino River, he was scanning the paddocks for bittern, and almost the first bird he found in the scope was a snipe standing erect looking his way! It was amongst some low vegetation, and was rather obvious as it stood there peering towards the road. Not a bad find at all! All members of the group saw the bird well, before it seemed to disappear amongst the veg. The bird was clearly a Gallinago snipe, and size seems to clearly point at Latham's snipe.

The bird was seen on 21/01/07 by Tim Barnard (who took the photo below), but was unfortunately missed by several other birders on 19 and 20 Jan. Keep looking!

So, the run of good birds continues, with this being probably the second snipe found this summer (Colin Miskelly found a Gallinago snipe sp. at Lake Wairarapa in late-Dec 06), amongst a host of other good rarities from Australia. See the other species listed on the Rarities webpage.