Great Snipes arrived

Great Snipes have arrived in their lek site at Putnu sala also this spring - the first song is heard on May 9.

According to monitoring data, number of Great Snipes in the whole Dviete floodplain nature park is decreasing (since 2006), still within the project area (since 2011, when bird counts started here) number of the species has increased. Removal of bushes from floodplain grasslands and introduction of grazing within the LIFE+ project DVIETE is favourable for the Great Snipe.

Great Snipe Gallinago media is a wader, like the Snipe. It winters in Africa, returns to its breeding sites from middle April, when flood waters are receded. Great Snipe males gather in leks, where compete in singing, display and fight each other. Most active they are at twilight. A lot of energy is needed for lek activities - a male loses 5 % of its weight during one night, which must be gained back during the next day, therefore good feeding conditions at the lek site are very important (wet and loose soil rich in worms). Such soil conditions during the breeding season in Latvia occur only in floodplain grasslands.

Ilze Priedniece

(materials of Latvian Ornithological society used)

14.05.2015.