BOM RA, ABMA JF & PLETERS AL (2013) Migration of Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus through Laag Holland. LIMOSA 86 (4): 209-216.

Jack Snipes are common migrants and winter visitors in the Netherlands. However, as a result of their cryptic behaviour not much is known about their migratory ecology. We exploited their habit of flushing at the very last moment to catch Jack Snipes on migration in the peat meadow area of Laag Holland near Amsterdam. Between 1991 and 2012, 321 Jack Snipes were caught by flushing them under horizontally held nets. Nearly all birds (96%) were caught in autumn, only a few in spring. In winter and summer Jack Snipes were not observed in the area. Numbers trapped peaked annually in the second decade of October. Five birds were reported shot outside the Netherlands, France (3), Spain and Ireland. Eighteen birds were recaptured by ourselves, 14 in the same autumn (5% of all new birds caught in autumn), after on average 13.5 days (range 1-34 days). Four birds were recaptured after at least half a year: one spring bird was recaptured in the subsequent autumn, and autumn migrants were recaptured after one (two birds) and three years, each within 8-9 days of the initial capture date. All four were made in the same field as the initial captures. In the course of autumn, birds increased in body mass by on average 0.28 gram per day, suggesting that Jack Snipes fatten up in this migratory stop-over site. Spring weights did not differ from those in autumn. The sex ratio did not deviate from 1 and did not change in the course of the autumn. Birds showed no active wing moult but the incidence of body moult increased during the autumn

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