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#1 |
New Blood
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1
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Snipes are real!!
In the latest podcast (#344) about the Mongolian Death Worms, "snipes" were included in a fictitious list of creatures. Snipes, or Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) are common North American shorebirds with long dark bills and striped heads, found in wet meadows and marsh edges across the continent.
When I became a birder ten years ago, I too was surprised to discover that snipe are real birds!! |
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#2 |
The Jester
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 9,760
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I remember reading about the fabled "snipe hunt" when I was in school, a few months after we bought the "Field Guide to North American Birds". I was loudly mocked in class for claiming that a snipe was a real bird.
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As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of resolving approaches zero. -Vaarsuvius It's a rum state of affairs when you feel like punching a jar of mayonnaise in the face. -Charlie Brooker |
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#3 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 22,755
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A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare |
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#4 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 22,755
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And here is the episode in question:
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4344
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A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare |
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#5 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 22,755
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Here is the Wikipedia entry for "snipe hunt". I vaguely recall something like this from my youth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt
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A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare |
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#6 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 15,355
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Just because there aren't many Snipe in the USA!!
Snipe are a family of about 25 Wading Birds. In the UK Snipe are hunted on Farmland. Where do you think the term 'Sniper' came from? |
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#7 |
Safely Ignored
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 8,893
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I knew that snipe were wading birds but never heard the term 'snipe hunt' used to describe a fool's errand. I only recently discovered that some people thought snipes were imaginary.
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#8 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 14,605
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We did snipe hunts in Boy Scouts as initiation. I had thought they were imaginary until a few years ago when the same subject came up on this forum.
DAMN YOU, JREF! I had hoped all my learnin' was done! |
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My kids still love me. |
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#9 |
beer-swilling semiliterate
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Connecticut, or King Arthur's Court. Hard to tell sometimes.
Posts: 25,012
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My dad once sent my little brother on a skeet hunt. My brother had gotten himself a box of skeet loads, which had a picture of a bird on it; naturally, he assumed that the pictured bird was a skeet. When my dad heard about my little brother's planned skeet hunt, he undertook to set him straight on the finer points.
"Now, you go down to the river bottom at first light; that's where the skeet nest. Get yourself set up real good in the tall grass and do the skeet call, 'Pull! Pull! Pull!' They'll come over your head like they were shot out of a cannon or something." Sure enough, first light the next morning found my intrepid brother in the tall grass... |
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#10 |
Atheist Tergiversator
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,076
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"One of the hardest parts of being an active skeptic - of anything - is knowing when to cut your losses, and then doing so." -Phil Plait |
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#11 |
Now. Do it now.
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 22,770
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#12 |
Half True Scotsperson
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,666
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I did an ornithology project on snipe nests. They have nice looking medium-sized eggs but precocial young, so one day I got there and they were all gone. I also had issues convincing others that they were real...
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#13 |
Banned
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 7,508
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A snipe is a Navy grease monkey.
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#14 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 6,679
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Currier & Ives lithograph of a man snipe hunting:
http://img0097.popscreencdn.com/1314...ng-hunter-.jpg |
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#15 |
Nitpicking dilettante
Deputy Admin Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berkshire, mostly
Posts: 39,869
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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#16 |
Nasty Woman
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 66,198
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Interesting, of all the birds one hunts from a hide, it's surprising this is the one whose name stuck.
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"Why do people say 'grow some balls'? Balls are weak and sensitive! If you really want to get tough, grow a vagina! Those things take a pounding!" — Betty White |
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#17 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 1,347
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As a youngster in the boy scouts, I once participated in a “snipe hunt” during a camping trip.
One of the counselors took 5-6 of us into the woods as he described how to scare a snipe into the open. It involved, as others have said above, making loud noises until the snipe was flushed from the bushes and into our waiting, open trash bags. Finally, we came to a spot when the counselor announced that he had spotted one darting under a distant bush. He instructed us to surround the large bush as he went in the flush out the snipe. We circled the bush and hollered out little hearts out. We heard some “bird-like” noises coming the bush, some yelling, and then the counselor emerged. “Did you see it? Where did it go?” Of course, somehow none of us saw the “lightning fast bird”. But, to show that it was real, the counselor displayed his bloody finger. “The bird bit me then took off!” We were amazed. Many years later, I learned that he had, of course, bit his own finger (and drew blood!) just to keep the illusion alive. I’m still amazed, but for a different reason. |
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#18 |
121.92-meter mutant fire-breathing lizard-thingy
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Northern St. Louis County, Missouri.
Posts: 42,180
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I beg your pardon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinist%27s_Mate
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Guns that are instantly available for use are instantly available for misuse. World War II Diplomatic and Political Resources Hyperwar, WWII Military History Buying conspiracy books is a voluntary tax on stupid. |
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#19 |
Safely Ignored
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 8,893
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#20 |
Nitpicking dilettante
Deputy Admin Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berkshire, mostly
Posts: 39,869
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__________________
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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#21 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 14,605
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My kids still love me. |
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