From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Jul 20 23:14:14 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6L6C0OQ027382 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 20 Jul 2004 23:12:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net (albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.120]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6L6AhMR027329 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 20 Jul 2004 23:10:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-38ldsie.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.242.78]) by albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1BnAJO-0001M1-00 for [[email protected]]; Tue, 20 Jul 2004 23:10:42 -0700 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v606) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed To: [[email protected]] From: Matthew Dodder <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 23:11:13 -0700 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.606) Subject: [SBB] RUFF still present at NCM X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] All, Leonie Batkin, my wife Cricket, and I decided to pursue the RUFF (and Reeve) at New Chicago Marsh after work this evening. Conditions at 6:00pm were windy so locating the bird among the numerous other shorebirds was not as easy as we had hoped. We contented ourselves for the first half an hour with the hundreds of WILSON'S PHALAROPES that were easily found in the first pond to our right as we walked along the railroad tracks. Many of them still sported evidence of breeding plumage. The next pond beyond that, as we looked toward the EEC, contained mostly RED-NECKED PHALAROPES and again, many retained obvious reddish coloration. Brightly colored SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS were in abundance almost everywhere we looked, as were BLACK-NECKED STILTS and many Stilt immatures. A few GREATER YELLOWLEGS were observed as well as two LESSER YELLOWLEGS among them. A single SEMIPALMATED PLOVER and the majority of AMERICAN AVOCETS were in the shallows to our left, back by the State and Spreckles intersection, as we walked further out. Perhaps a hundred LEAST SANDPIPERS and a couple dozen WESTERN SANDPIPERS were seen foraging close to the tracks at various stops and we had good looks at them. Finally after about 45 minutes of searching, and just after I announced in a frustrated tone of voice "It's about time for this bird to appear..." it did! We located it among a large mixed group containing mostly Dowitchers and Stilts that were sleeping on a long patch of mud between the first and second ponds about a hundred yards away. As reported, the RUFF has obvious dark blotching along the sides of its breast and belly, stands taller than the nearby Dowitchers and has a shortish bill, wide at the base and drooped toward the end. We noticed its rather vivid orange-yellow legs, pale throat and face and scaley grayish-tan appearance to its back. Its head appears quite small for its body and it seems rather thick-necked. We observed also that in profile its body seemed deep or heavy-bellied, but this effect was lost when we saw it head on. At one point the entire group of birds, several hundred of mixed species, took flight and we thought we would never relocate the Ruff again, but within a few minutes we were fortunate to view it again and this time somewhat closer. We were not able to locate the Reeve reported in the same area, but still felt lucky to find the one male. Matthew Dodder http://www.birdguy.net _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]