FOR the past couple of months the Ranger Service has employed an ornithological consultant to survey the birds as they over winter on the wetland nature reserves of the Wyre Forest District Council.

This is quite a big project and will not be complete for another couple of months.

However, some of the preliminary results have been wonderful.

One bird that has formed the nucleus of the survey is the snipe. This traditional marshland bird has seen its numbers rapidly decline over the last century and is particularly scarce in the Midlands now.

The Rangers have encountered snipe on several occasions but the exact numbers present or the key pieces of habitat on the reserves that these birds use were unknown.

It is strongly believed that this survey will rectify this and allow the District Council Ranger Service to appropriately manage these key snipe areas, thus over time, increasing the population supported in the Wyre Forest.

Snipe are notoriously hard to spot in the wild as they have wonderful brown, white and black camouflage, which would be the envy of any military unit.

Therefore, the only real way of detecting them is to "flush" or disturb them.

The survey method used reduces this disturbance to a minimum, but allows accurate records of their number and favoured locations to be made.

Once a snipe is disturbed it is easy to identify by its long narrow bill and rapid zig-zagging flight.

The bird often emits a sharp alarm call at which point other nearby snipe also takes to the air. This group of birds known as a wisp of snipe, fly off together often for some considerable distance.

To date, the results have been very uplifting with half a dozen or so birds making Puxton Marsh their winter home. More surprising though, is that similar numbers have also been found living on the much smaller and far more urban reserves of Blake Marsh and Spennells Valley in Kidderminster.

Snipe feed on invertebrates by detecting their movement in shallow water or, the associated soft mud with their highly sensitive bills.

There is certainly plenty of this out on these reserves and the birds are obviously finding just what they need, which is great.

What is unknown, though, is how long the snipe will remain. Will they head west to the mountains of Wales for the warmer summer months or, perhaps, if we are extremely fortunate, will they remain in the Wyre Forest and breed?