Snipe but no owls

Away this weekend on my Welsh course, so no walks......But I did look for the owls on Thursday afternoon, around 3.45 and walked through where they usually are for a while, but nothing. Just However, I flushed out a snipe a bit earlier when walking the dog. I would like to be certain that these are snipe, but they fly off very quickly. But the conditions are right - i.e. not when it is icy but when it is soft enough for feeding (and often after a lot of rain) and the flight pattern looks right, and what I can see of the size and colouring. But they don't hang around!