Dear Mr. Trussell,

Thank you,
Virginia O'Dowd

Dear Virginia,

Your friends are wrong. They have been affected by our skeptical age. That skepticism runs deep in some quarters, aggravated by pranksters playing snipe-hunting practical jokes on their friends.

The joker tells the friend/victim that snipe are hunted at night along lonely, deserted dirt roads deep in the country. The trick involves getting the would-be snipe hunter to straddle a ditch with a paper sack so that the snipe, which are supposedly to be chased down the ditch, can literally be "bagged." The joker then gets in the car and heads down the road with the stated purpose of "driving" the quarry toward the waiting sucker. Shortly after the taillights fade into the gloom, of course, the hapless victim realizes the horrible truth, and is left to walk home.

Stunts of this sort have fueled claims that snipe are figments of the imagination. But, Virginia, the snipe is a very real, very wild bird that floats, whirls, and dashes through the woodlands of Georgia, and serves as the focus of many a thrilling hunt.

Respectfully,
John Trussell

* * *
Such an exchange of letters might stretch the limits of the fanciful a bit -- but in a state like Georgia, where game and hunters both abound, its potential necessity isn't completely impossible. Let's take a look at what the Peach State offers in the way of snipe and other small-game action this year.

SNIPE
Seriously -- snipe do exist in Georgia. They're usually bagged by accident as hunters pursue other species such as rabbits, squirrels or quail. In fact, the most common reason for snipe escaping is the hunter failing to shoot, unsure if a season's even open for the species!

Wilson's snipe, as it's more fully known, is a migratory bird, and so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets the season for it -- which in Georgia normally runs from mid-November through the end of February.

Snipe breed in Canada and the northern United States and then migrate to the Southern states, or even as far as northern South America. During the late fall and winter they can be found scattered all across Georgia. They frequently inhabit boggy areas, where they use their long bills to forage in soft mud for worms and insects.

About the size of a bobwhite quail, the snipe has short greenish grey legs and a dark-hued, straight and, as noted, very long bill. Its body is mottled brown on top and pale underneath. It has a dark stripe through the eye, above and below which are light stripes.