Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Breeding Range. (Fig. 64). Locally common in the southern portion of the Agassiz Lake Plain Region (most numerous on deltaic sand area of eastern Ransom County and northwestern Richland County) and on the Northwestern Drift Plain (most numerous on the Souris Lake Plain in McHenry County); uncommon and local elsewhere in the Agassiz Lake Plain and Prairie Pothole Regions, and in the Turtle Mountains; rare on the Missouri Slope.
Most local breeding populations are represented by scattered, segregated pairs. The greatest breeding concentration was discovered in McHenry County on an unusually large fen covering about 850 acres that is located 8 to 11 miles north-northeast of Karlsruhe. In 1969, at least 15 pairs were nesting in this area (H. A. Kantrud, RES).
Breeding Habitat. Breeding populations of this species are restricted almost entirely to fens (Stewart and Kantrud 1968). These water-logged habitats are extremely local in their occurrence and may be described as alkaline, calcareous bogs or quagmires. The floating, quaking surface mats of emergent vegetation, characteristic of these situations, are composed of a considerable variety of emergent plants including cattails, softstem bulrush, water sedge, beaked sedge, narrowleaf cottongrass, tufted hairgrass, northern reedgrass, and common water-hemlock.
Nesting. Breeding season: Early May to mid-July; peak, late May to early July. An adult exhibiting breeding territorial behavior was observed on May 7 [1972] in Stutsman County (P. F. Springer). Extreme egg dates (7 nests): May 20 [1968] in Stutsman County (R. B. Oetting) to June 27 [1896] in Rolette County (E. T. Judd). Dependent young birds were recorded as early as June 9 [1968] in Stutsman County (R. B. Getting), and as late as July 15 [1951] in Foster County (M. L. Coyne). An adult exhibiting breeding territorial behavior was observed on July 22 [1968] in Stutsman County (L. M. Kirsch).
Nests are well concealed in dense emergent vegetation composed of grasses and sedges that are characteristic of fens. Several were situated on top of grassy hummocks.
Indicated clutch size (5 nests): each nest with 4 eggs.
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| Figure 64. Breeding Range of Common Snipe. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/bbofnd/species/2300.htm
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Menlo Park, CA [caww54]
