Sue and I birded the East Pond at JBWR this morning, starting at the south end and working our way along the east side of the pond. We found the birding to be better at the north end of the pond, where we quickly saw the American Avocet. An immature Peregrine Falcon kept us company for much of the walk up the pond, scattering the shorebirds in all directions. We had reached North Island when we noticed a Ruff/Reeve on the east side of the pond a little north of the island. We watched the bird for a while and I obtained some poor pictures before something scared the birds and we could not relocate the Ruff. There has been some speculation that this bird might be the same Reeve that was present earlier on the East Pond. Sexual dimorphism in Ruffs is well known, and over the years I have observed many (relative term) more Ruffs than Reeves. So size differences in Reeves is not something I have had much experience with.
What struck us (and Andrew Baksh as well) was that this bird appeared larger than the Short-billed Dowitchers (11") around it. If this was a Reeve (10") you would expect it to be smaller than the dowitchers, although Paulson in "Shorebirds of North America" indicates that a female "is of dowitcher size" while a Ruff is similar in size to a Greater Yellowlegs (14"). I had observed the Reeve at the south end of the East Pond a few weeks ago in the company of Lesser Yellowlegs (10.5") and the birds appeared fairly similar in size. A Ruff (12") would seem to be a better fit for today's bird, at least in terms of size. My photograph of today's bird shows white feathering around the base of the bill, a feature that is largely missing from last week's Reeve. I have posted a poor photograph of the Ruff on my Flickr site. Compare the size of the Ruff to the sleeping dowitcher on the extreme left of the photo. A photo of the Reeve that was observed in July is also on the site at http://flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/ There is likely better photos of the Ruff/Reeve floating around, so stay tuned. Good Birding! Ken & Sue Feustel -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
