Habitat use and diet of Common Snipe<i>Gallinago gallinago</i>breeding on moorland in northern England

Hoodless, Andrew N.; Ewald, Julie A.; Baines, David

doi:10.1080/00063650709461474

Cited by 23 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Snipe prefer tussocky grassland (Mason & MacDonald, 1976) where they feed predominantly by probing the soil for invertebrates (Green, 1988; Green, Hirons & Cresswell, 1990). Densities of foraging snipe in winter are closely related to the density and biomass of earthworms (Hoodless, Draycott & Tucker, 1998) and in the breeding season snipe are more often flushed from around wet features and wetter areas of soil (Hoodless, Ewald & Baines, 2007). Snipe can have a long nesting season if conditions remain suitable (soil penetration resistance <6 kgf) and a 1 month extension could potentially double the number of snipe chicks hatched in a season (Green, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing land management of lowland wet grasslands of the UK: impacts on snipe abundance and habitat quality

Amar

O’Brien

Grice

et al. 2008

Animal Conservation

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Snipe Gallinago gallinago breeding on lowland wet grasslands in England have undergone widespread and dramatic declines in abundance and distribution since at least the 1970s. There are many potential drivers of the decline but reductions in habitat quality, driven by land management, are often proposed as a contributing factor in the historical declines of breeding waders. Breeding snipe are now restricted to a few key places such as nature reserves and environmentally sensitive areas where management for breeding waders is implemented. On average, populations have continued to decline, even in these key areas, though population trends vary from a decline of 98% to an increase of 61% between the early 1990s and 2006. We examined the relationship between regional variation in snipe population trends and soil conditions, other habitat features and land management. Snipe were more likely to persist in fields where the soil conditions were wet and soft. Fields are wetter and softer now than in the early 1990s and management influenced these conditions. Soil softness increased with decreasing grazing pressure and increasing surface flooding. Soil moisture increased with surface flooding and was higher in organic soils. Changes in field condition were consistent with decreases in grazing pressure and increases in surface flooding. In spite of habitat condition being altered in a way that should have been beneficial to snipe, the numbers have continued to decline. Thus, it is unlikely that the measures of habitat condition examined here have been the driver of the decline and other factors must be involved. Research efforts should now focus on alternative explanations of the decline, for example, changes in other key aspects of habitat quality such as prey abundance, or changes in snipe productivity or mortality.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing land management of lowland wet grasslands of the UK: impacts on snipe abundance and habitat quality

Amar

O’Brien

Grice

et al. 2008

Animal Conservation

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“…Many upland waders commute to feed in areas of enclosed pasture that contain high densities of tipulid larvae (Grant et al 1992, Robson et al 2002, PearceHiggins & Yalden 2003, Hoodless et al 2007. Although these are generally later-emerging species such as Tipula pagana and T. paludosa (Coulson 1959, McCracken et al 1995, their eggs and early larval instars also appear susceptible to drought (Meats Table 5.…”

Section: Sensitivity Of Prey Taxa To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Using diet to assess the sensitivity of northern and upland birds to climate change

Pearce‐Higgins¹

2010

Clim. Res.

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High-latitude species are predicted to be vulnerable to climate change, particularly in the UK uplands, where many are at the margins of their southern range. There is increasing evidence that climate change may have an impact on populations through reductions in prey abundance. The diet of 17 insectivorous UK upland birds, and the sensitivity of their prey to likely climate change, were quantified from the literature and combined to produce an index of climate-change sensitivity for upland birds. Coleoptera and Diptera were the 2 most important prey taxa, with Tipulidae the most widely ingested prey family. Lepidoptera, Lumbricidae and Hymenoptera also comprised > 20% of the diet of at least one upland bird species. Of these prey taxa, existing studies suggest that Tipulidae, Chironomidae and Lumbridicae may be particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures and increased frequency of drought projected to result from climate change. Therefore, the contribution of these 3 taxa to the diets of upland birds provides an index of climate-change sensitivity, which was correlated with an index of recent upland bird population trends. Future increases in temperature and drought frequency are expected to have an impact on populations of a range of upland bird species through reductions in prey availability, although further studies are required to test this hypothesis. Many upland areas have been artificially drained using ditches. Blocking these ditches may therefore provide a potential management option for climate-change adaptation in the UK uplands.

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“…Ceratopogonidae, Odonata, Haliplidae) were recorded in much smaller amountSimilar results were recorded by other authors (eg. Soni and Javed (2019), Rundle (1982), Winegardner (1976), Boros et al, (2006), Hoodless et al, (2007)). Moreover, plant material was present in a few samples only.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revision of common snipe, Gallinago gallinago in morphometric analysis and building the standard reference haematological values for further studies

2021

Turk J Zool

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This study was designed to record some morphometric and haematological parameters of Common Snipe, Gallinago gallinago. For this purpose, 20 individuals (10 male, 10 female) were collected from the wetlands of District Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan. Significant differences between the sexes were recorded in tail length, length of longest primary feather, and chest circumference. No significant difference was recorded in haematological parameters between the sexes. Gut analysis revealed that common snipe feed mostly on Chironomidae and Ceratopogonidae larvae and male and female snipes have the same food preference.

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Habitat use and diet of Common SnipeGallinago gallinagobreeding on moorland in northern England

Cited by 23 publications

References 29 publications

Changing land management of lowland wet grasslands of the UK: impacts on snipe abundance and habitat quality

Changing land management of lowland wet grasslands of the UK: impacts on snipe abundance and habitat quality

Using diet to assess the sensitivity of northern and upland birds to climate change

Revision of common snipe, Gallinago gallinago in morphometric analysis and building the standard reference haematological values for further studies

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