Cannon netting Painted Snipe
in the Kimberley – Chris Hassell
On the
25th March 2002 I went out to a cattle bore on Roebuck Plains
Station, to recky for the possibility of cannon netting Oriental
Pratincoles, after a tip off from George Swann that it might be
possible. When I got there the pratincoles were widely spread; and even
with a big net, a maximum capture of 5 or so birds would have been
lucky. I decided to wait until dusk to see if the ‘prats’ grouped
together as George had seen them do. While I waited I took some photos
of the Whiskered terns, with the odd White-winged Black amongst them.
After
this I casually scanned the small waterhole and you can imagine my
surprise and delight when I saw 7 (SEVEN) Painted Snipe on the edge of
the water feeding in belly deep grey muddy water.
“Gosh!” I said to
myself. Those of you who know me well will know what I really said! I
got extended views through my 40X eyepiece and scope and then crept
closer in the car to photograph them. I got some good shots with 200mm
lens with 2X converter attached. Again for those of you who know me,
good, when concerning my photographs is a relative term!
Now as
I looked at the birds and marvelled at their beauty a thought came into
my head, they looked very catchable (too long spent with a certain C.D.T
Minton means I can never just admire a bird for its beauty, these days I
have to consider catching it.)
As a
good friend of Danny Rogers I was well aware the species was the centre
of a lot of attention, being the subject of a Birds Australia Project of
which Danny is the coordinator. Having just completed an article for
Stilt with Danny on Painted Snipe in the Kimberley, with notes on a nest
I found in 1999 (Hassell,
C.J., and D.I. Rogers. 2002. Painted Snipe nesting at Taylor's Lagoon
near Broome, north-western Australia. The Stilt 41:14-21.), I had a strong interest in the species. Seeing 7
sitting in belly deep water looking very cannon nettable was too much to
bear!
I
returned home and rang Danny who after some considerable persuasion
agreed it would be worth a go if we could get blood samples to finalise
the predictions of D. Rogers and B. Lane that the Painted Snipe in Australia
is a separate species from the Asian and African species. The time for
his protracted decision was about 0.000001 of a second.
Many
hectic phone calls later and I had 5 other people as odd as my good self
prepared for two nights hence. 2AM meet 3AM at site! The following day
George was at the site mid morning and saw 8 males. This boded well for
success as the birds were obviously at the water all day.
We got
to the site to be greeted by 300 cattle. They left in a very orderly
fashion and were thoughtful enough to leave behind 17 million mossies.
The
net was set very efficiently, seeing as it was dark, and we retired to
150 metres away for a cuppa and to wait for first light.
The
mossies meanwhile, feasted well.
At
first light we left Jan at the firing box with radio and the two
vehicles and moved to where we could see the waterhole and the catching
area.
There
was now enough light to see 8 snipe, 7 males and 1 female. Patience was
all that was required, so it was a pity that I was there!
We
sat, we watched, we talked earnestly on the radio, Dan got all excited
‘cos he saw a pipit!!!! I said ‘oh damn’ when a Masked Lapwing
chased the birds away from close to the net and I said ‘ oh gosh and
golly” on numerous other occasions, because there wasn’t much else
to do.
Eventually
being patient was too much for me and after twice having a single bird
in front I asked George to do a vehicle based twinkle, this worked a
charm and six birds promptly walked in front of the net.
The resulting dash to the net was
its usual entertaining affair with CJ Hassell flying like the wind, G.
Swann doing a fair job in his thongs (note for non-aussies, thongs are
flip-flops not a g-string!!!!), and D. Blunt nowhere to be seen with a
pulled hamstring!!!!
I presumed the grey, cow dung filled water wasn’t too deep and plunged
in closely followed by George and a hopping Dan. We grabbed the 5 five
birds on view and extracted them where we stood without moving the net,
meanwhile the cage was going up with alacrity but something was
bothering me. I had fired over 6 and was certain we would catch them
all, so where was number 6?
I
started to check the net where it was, still in the murky water, and
number 6 popped up in front of me. I don’t know if the bird was
deliberately submerged to protect itself or if the net was holding it
down but it was in fine spirits and all birds despite the foul looking
water they had been in for a moment didn’t have a drop on them. They
were all aggressive and hissed continually until put in the cage and
then continued to do so and perform threat displays every time we looked
in. The sight of the birds with wings and tail spread is a sight to
behold at close quarters.
Modern
communications can be a pain in the neck when you don’t want to be
contacted but right now a satellite phone was perfect. We rang John
Curran, he dropped everything and rushed out to join us and take blood
samples.
All
birds were banded, flagged, measured and weighed and then photographed
and photographed and photographed etc etc etc etc.
We
released all 6 birds at the same time and they flew strongly for 200ms
or so before dropping into tall grass.
We
packed up the muddy gear and our muddy selves and smiled all the way
home.
This
rambling missive would not have been possible without
Dan
Blunt, BBO Warden, Photography, Pipit spotting and hopping
Wendy
Blunt, BBO Warden, all measurements
John
Curran, AQIS, BBO committee, ridiculously fast driving, blood sampling.
Jan
Lewis, BBO committee, banding, and nerves of steel at the firing box.
Liz
Rosenberg, BBO Volunteer, Meticulous scribing
George
Swann, for putting me on to the spot in the first place, Twinkling,
photography.
My sincere thanks to these people and Danny Rogers
passes on his as well.
Rostratula
australis here we come!
Footnote:
The
above research helped to prove that the Australian Painted Snipe was
indeed a separate species to the ones occurring in Africa & Asia, as
evidenced by the extract below from the website of Department of Environment
which can be found at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/r-australis.html
Rostratula australis (Australian Painted Snipe)
Until
recently, the Australian Painted Snipe was considered to be a subspecies
of the species Rostratula benghalensis that occurs in Africa and Asia. A
recent taxonomic study by Lane and Rogers (2000) together with a DNA
study, as yet unpublished, verify that the Australian Painted Snipe is a
separate species. It has been confirmed that this new species is
acceptable, that it will be known as Rostratula australis (Australian
Painted Snipe), and that it will appear in the new Australian checklist of
birds to be published in 2003. There is no evidence that the Australian
Painted Snipe migrates outside of Australia.
