SNIPE HUNTING: Snipe hunting is more than a practical 
joke ... details ahead on Passport to Texas ... 

This is Passport to Texas

An invitation to participate in a snipe hunt fills young 
hearts with anticipation and anxiety. In my youth, snipe 
hunts were cloaked in mystery; and that's what made 
them deliciously terrifying.

Taken at night to a wooded area and outfitted with a 
burlap bag ... a flashlight with weak batteries ... and a 
whistle to call for help ... hunters enter the woods alone in 
search of dreaded snipes. And how would they recognize 
them? They would know them when they saw them.

Before long, panicked whistles and screams from deep 
within the woods pierced the silence, as vivid 
imaginations got the best of the young snipe hunters. 
Eventually everyone, including the hunter, had a good 
laugh.

Today we know snipe are small, long billed, brownish 
shorebirds in the sandpiper family. Their habitat includes 
freshwater marshes, ponds and flooded fields. They 
breed across much of North America, but like to spend 
their winters in the southern states, including Texas.

Snipe are game birds here, and the season to hunt snipe 
ends on February 15th. So if you want to go snipe hunting, 
and not be left holding the bag, time is running out.

Learn more about snipe and see an image of this not so 
terrifying creature when you log onto our web site: 
passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports 
our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 


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