Birding Dude: 4th Ruff at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Queens County...

Thursday, August 2, 2012

4th Ruff at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Queens County...

Need "ruffhage" in your diet? Head over to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge where there is no doubt in my mind that a 4th Ruff was reported by birder Derek Rogers this morning on the East Pond. It so happened I was on the East Pond, on the East side and briefly had a look at a bird mingling with Short-billed Dowitchers that I thought looked like a Ruff (Philomachus pugnax), but I lost it (clearly a case of GI) and could not refind it. After about 30 minutes of searching I let it go thinking I must have suffered from a mild case of "raritis"(credit to Shai Mitra for this one). Half an hour later, I felt the phone vibrating indicating incoming mail and I checked (because you never know when someone was going to report a rarity) and what do I see but a post from Derek Rogers who I had seen on the other side (west side) of the pond. He had found a "Reeve" near the North End as he was exiting the pond.

I back tracked heading south and scoped the bird from the East side. The bird was feeding near the North End and it was definitely a "Reeve" looking "Ruff" or should I say "Ruff" looking Reeve". Confused yet? I remember the July 15th bird appeared to be smaller than Short-billed Dowitchers; however, when I observed today's bird near SBDOs (Short-billed Dowitcher), it appeared much larger. Thoughts of a 4th Ruff, began to circulate in my head. Derek had earlier chalked this one up to the Reeve reported on July 15th, but I was thinking this bird looked bigger and a bit different. Two things made me think another bird. First, the July 15th Reeve had not been reported for well over 1 week and I think with all the excellent birders on the pond, someone would have picked it out, if it was still around. Secondly, this bird showed more white "feathering" in the face, especially at the base of the bill, which was way more pronounced than the July 15th bird.

Another birder, Ken Feustel, who also came in on the East Side of the pond and saw this bird had a conversation with me where he remarked that this bird looked bigger than the Reeve from July 15th, especially when observed near Short-billed Dowitchers. Coincidentally, I had pretty much said the same thing to Michael McBrien another birder who was on the West side of the pond observing this bird. Later on when I saw the legs of today's bird, I was quite certain this was a different bird. Today's Ruff/Reeve legs were more orange looking than the dull gray/greenish looking color on the bird from July 15th.

Trying to determine whether if this is a Female Ruff vs a Male with this one seem tougher, especially since this bird appears bigger. In comparing the photos of the bird from July 15th to today's bird I get the sense that today's bird does not look as delicate as the July 15th bird, which I thought to be a Reeve. If not a breeding adult female, this could very well be the "faeder" type male, which retains the female breeding plumage in an effort to infiltrate and upend the dominant male Ruff by mating with his gal pals. Check out this video which shows a "faeder" type male allowing himself to be mounted by a dominant male, but then he sneaks up and mounts a female...pretty cool stuff. I have provided below, photos from today's bird as well as the July 15th bird for review.