Whitesbog 8/1--Ruff

Ruff (Reeve)

Shorebird season @ Whitesbog seemed to kick off today on the first of the month. My previous couple of days could be considered spring training. On Thursday, with the lower bog showing mudflats, I had 9 species of shorebird, and yesterday, in an abbreviated visit, I had the same birds, just in different numbers.

This morning I was there early and again, the same selection of shorebirds were in evidence, with a Merlin bursting through one time to scatter a couple of flocks. The traffic on the dikes, from dog walkers, fishermen, walkers, joggers, etc was getting a little much for me so I took off for the trail around Union Pond then into Ditch Meadow. I was walking back toward the Triangle Field (where the first commercial blueberries in the country were cultivated) when I got a call from Jim. He thought he might have a Ruff. 

Boom! I turned around, cut through a muddy road that I hardly ever use, and met him at the wooden bridge in about five minutes. Unfortunately, I'd put my scope away in the car. Normally, I'd have parked the car where I could have retrieved it on the way to where Jim was, but, because it was a Saturday and a couple of cars and trucks were already in that space when I got there, my scope was a two bogs away. Still, the bird was close enough in for binocular sighting but the light wasn't great. Jim and I hemmed and hawed--the bird sure didn't look like a Lesser Yellowlegs, either in field marks or in behavior, but it wasn't until one flew in and stood next to it for direct comparison that we got more confident. Jim put in a call to Tom, who I'd seen earlier in the day. Happily, he hadn't left the area and was there in about 5 minutes. He confirmed Jim's I.D. 

The Ruff was actually a Reeve, meaning female, so it wasn't a spectacular bird as male would be. And that of course is what makes the identification challenging and also makes it difficult to keep the bird in sight as you wait for other birders to arrive as it moves around with yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpipers. Eventually four other birders responded to Jim's alert, and, I gather from the eBird reports, the birders kept coming at a steady pace as the bird hung around through the late afternoon. There is nothing worse than a bird jam at Whitesbog, but so far that seems to have been avoided. The farmer there does us the favor of lowering the water and we want to stay in his good graces. 

The question is will this bird stick? The weather for the next few days seems extremely changeable what with a storm in the west and tropical storm coming up the coast. Will it stay down because of the weather, or get out of Dodge while the getting is good? Assuming no downpours tomorrow morning, I'll probably go over there an check it out. This Ruff is only the 2nd or 3rd record for Burlco, so it is *mega in the county. The other rarities we expect, like American Golden-Plover or Buff-breasted Sandpiper, are a few weeks away. But we're off to a roaring start. 

My day list:

38 species

Canada Goose  2    Heard coming in

Wood Duck  1

American Black Duck  1

Mourning Dove  1

Yellow-billed Cuckoo  3    Heard

Semipalmated Plover  15

Killdeer  1

Ruff  1    

Least Sandpiper  20

Pectoral Sandpiper  5

Semipalmated Sandpiper  25

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Solitary Sandpiper  3

Greater Yellowlegs  1

Lesser Yellowlegs  7

Great Blue Heron  3

Green Heron  4

Turkey Vulture  3

Merlin  1    Blasted through sandpipers

Eastern Wood-Pewee  3    Heard

Eastern Phoebe  1

Eastern Kingbird  3

White-eyed Vireo  1    Heard

American Crow  5

Fish Crow  8

Carolina Chickadee  4

Purple Martin  3

Tree Swallow  40

Barn Swallow  2

White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard

Carolina Wren  2    Heard

European Starling  40

American Robin  2

Song Sparrow  2

Eastern Towhee  5

Red-winged Blackbird  5

Black-and-white Warbler  1

Common Yellowthroat  15