Snipe??

[april1693]

We arrived home tonight to discover a strange feeding bird in our garden - at 11pm!! It was a stout, short legged bird with a longish beak that sort of waddled/ran along the garden and into a ditch. It had a strikingly light underbelly too. We tried to photograph it but it was too dark, so I googled a bit and I found that the only bird that sounds remotely like what we saw is the snipe. I've never seen one before in daylight never mind this late at night! Any ideas folks? FYI we are in the north x

[Buenchico]

Woodcocks are largely nocturnal:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/w/woodcock/index.aspx

[Buenchico]

Photo here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Woodcock_earthworm.jpg

[april1693]

That looks exactly like it Buenchico - Thank you! I've never seen one before. I was actually a bit concerned for it thinking it was maybe injured but it was obviously feeding - our garden has a wealth of worms etc.