Management for snipe

 Snipe shoots can be divided into two groups, according to whether or not they depend for their success on the onset of hard weather. Where, for some local reason such as the emergence of springs or the presence of warm effluent from an old-fashioned sewage farm, relatively small areas of wet ground remain unfrozen, little or no management is undertaken. Weather lore and the ability to muster the Guns at short notice are all that are required. But in the milder climate enjoyed by the west and south-west of the British Isles, spells of cold weather cannot be relied on to concentrate the snipe, and the incentive to attract birds to really good feeding grounds becomes greater. In such areas it is worth while making an effort to provide the conditions they are known to like.

Their diet consists mainly of invertebrates such as earthworms - the long, pliable sensitive beak being designed for probing in soft earth. Bare patches of humus-rich soil are well favoured; cowpats are also worked over. Snipe dislike meadows that are choked with reeds and rushes, but such areas can usually be improved quite easily by eliminating a proportion of the dense cover, i.e. in patches. This can often be done by controlled burning, especially where there are reeds, which are usually inflammable in a dry October or November. Failing this, a swipe can be used to reduce the herbage. The dead stems can then be burned or raked off.

The tethering of grazing horses in marshy areas provided ideal snipe habitat - the open patches among the taller vegetation being very much to the snipe's liking. The importance of these bare areas -whether of natural or artificial origin - has long been recognised in the U.S.A. where they are known as 'eat-outs'.

Those of animal origin probably have the advantage over man-made ones, since the animals' manure is believed to increase the amount of invertebrate food available. In the old days 'manuring' the cleared patches in the hogs or beds was reported to have been carried out- mainly with blood and offal. At present it is almost impossible to find anyone in England who has had first-hand experience of attempts to increase snipe food by spreading manure. Snipe prefer to feed and rest out of the wind. The bare feeding places should therefore he made in areas where the rough vegetation that is left standing can provide essential shelter. Gutting swathes through the cover, in a criss-cross or chessboard pattern, will also allow the birds to run to shelter in times of danger.

Another way of improving a snipe bog is to use small explosive charges to create a pattern of small craters. These will have a dry rim on which the snipe can stand - they do not always wish to be ankle-deep in water. The sides should be 'shelved' by hand. Feeding circles cut with a spade - leaving the upturned sods round the perimeter - give the same result.

In some areas of Holland snipe management is perhaps better understood than over here and this fact, combined with their extensive reedlands, has led the Dutch to develop special snipe beds-a technique that could more generally be used in our own country.

There are two sorts of snipe bed - natural and artificial. The former are cut out of the reedlands (the reeds being a valuable crop for thatching, bulb fields and potato silos). The original 'wild' snipe beds simply consisted of the first clearings opened up by the reed-cutters. It was found that these provided the right feeding conditions - part wet and part dry - with nearby standing reeds giving escape cover. When the snipe hear or sense danger they often run into the sheltering reeds. The open beds are used for feeding, resting and actual sleeping. In time these 'wild' or natural beds were rented out to shooters and gradually became more sophisticated, with butcher's blood and mud poured on to them to attract insect life.

The snipe flight into these beds in the early morning, and are shot from hides in much the same way as duck.

The artificial beds are usually made in patches, rather than cut out of a wilderness of reeds - partly so that the snipe can see them more easily, but also so that shot birds will fall where they can be retrieved by dogs.

They consist of 'mats' of cut-down reed stubble about 20 ft. (6 m.) square with a top layer of dug-out roots - in one area it was reedmace - dressed with mud or manure. It is essential to achieve the right pattern of water and half submerged, rotting roots, which form a 'raft'. During the season -September and October - the surface is raked over each week.

More ambitious still are snipe beds made in places such as sand or gravel pits. Here boards are used to enclose an area of about 20 sq. yds. ( 1 7 sq. m.), which is then filled with sunken faggots and mud, and finally Phragmites roots (or reedmace) turned upside down. Fresh mud and manure are added each week in the season and raked over.

The snipe bed undoubtedly provides interesting shooting, and where birds are found in substantial numbers but cannot be approached or shown satisfactorily, they are worth considering. Many a small rough shoot could well do with a morning snipe flight to spin out a day's sport.

None of these simple suggestions is beyond the capacity of even the smallest farm with a patch of undrained, boggy ground. Indeed, we believe that many a bog would never have been drained had the owner realised its potential sporting value.

Research carried out by Dr G. ,J. M. Hirons, Game Conservanev.

 

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