Snipe Hunt anyone?

Some of y’all in the south may be familiar with snipe hunting. For those of you who are not let me explain it by telling you about last weekend.

It had been appointed by Babs to be “girls weekend out”. Yes a wild good time story is about to unfold. Babs, Yasmine, Deb, Kat and I hooked up Saturday morning at the Piney Shores Resort. We started talking about different things we did as teenagers during the spring. I mentioned snipe hunting and Yasmine had never heard of the wily secretive bird. I explained that is was migratory and it liked to settle here for a few weeks on its journey and that it is known to hide in the woods near bodies of water. Kat brought up the horrible screeching sound it makes. Deb told us that she had overheard someone in the welcome center mention they had heard the snipe calls just the night before. Wow could it really be? Could we hunt? Everyone was game for it, well almost everyone. Yasmine wasn’t so sure that she wanted to hunt. But we convinced her to do it besides Babs told her it would be fine if she wanted she could carry a flash light. But only if Yasmine promised not to use it unless she got scared, really scared. Yasmine’s eyes got big and she asked why she would need a flashlight.

We told her that the only time you could catch a snipe was to wait for them to come out to do their mating dance and because they were nocturnal that takes place after dark. I could tell she was uncertain about doing the hunt, so naturally I called her a chicken and that’s when the other girls started clucking and balking. Almost in unison we all asked if she was scared, because if she was we would understand and wouldn’t hunt. She said, “Scared, what does mean?” I said asustado. No, no she was not scared.

It was on for after super. With our gear (pillow case and flashlight) in hand we explained what was going to take place. “Yes we gotta go in the woods.“ Deb answered, “How else can we find them?” Yasmine nodded her understanding. Kat showed her how you squat down and keep the bag open and ready to grab them up. We cautioned her not to be freaked out when she heard their high pitched mating call. Kat made this wild sound as we all tried to impersonate a snipe. Babs told her she would know.

We made our way into the woods and after walking a few minutes, we had Yasmine stay put. “Remember only use your flash light if you get scared.” Kat whispered. “And be quiet, we’ll chase them towards you so be ready to scoop ‘em up.” I said. We went a ways further and after everything was quite, someone farted-No it wasn't me. So we had to wait for the laughter to stop and things to get quiet again. It was just about then when we started hearing the snipes moving.

There it was, the unmistable scream, you know. Well if you have been snipe hunting anyway. Next thing we knew we were headed towards Yasmine the snipes caught between us. The leaves rusted, sticks cracked, snipes calling and the screaming OMG I thought I would go deaf and I thought Yasmine was gonna have a cow. By the time we reached her, the flashlight was shinning and her arms were waving every which way. She had fallen and the bag tore when she scramble to get up. Yasmine had a frightened look on her face, she had completely turned white. Try as she did there was not one single snipe in the bag. Bless her heart I thought she was going to cry. Maybe next time we chuckled and patted her on the back. Yeah I said lets do this again next year. Yasmine said no thanks she never planned on snipe hunting “ever again!”. She even mentioned that she had doubts that there was even any such thing as a snipe. They don’t have them in her country.

Yes there are snipes and here are some links so you can see for yourself that is if you are brave enough to click on ‘em.

Snipe Photo here, Snipe Call here, Snipe information here and Snipe- the legend.

What about you have you ever hunted the elusive snipe?