Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge: A Tale of Two Ruffs or Not

The first Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Ruff of 2016 was spotted by Ken and Sue Feustel on Saturday 6-25-2016.  Coincidentally, I walked in just as they saw the bird, having left the north end of the pond after doing trail clearing. While looking at this bird, I learned that someone had sent a text message during the week to a lucky few, indicating they had seen 2 Ruffs on the pond flying off. This report of the "supposedly Ruffs on the East Pond" never made it to the list serve and the source of this information remains a mystery...for now.

Saturday's Ruff went missing on Sunday and there was no sign of this bird through Wednesday until Robert Proniewych reported a Ruff this morning at the south end of the East Pond. In another coincident, I was there this morning; one hour after high tide and I had walked the entire pond. I did not see a Ruff then. Now, this does not mean it was not there and I missed it but I am suspicious, pondering if this Ruff has a new spot somewhere outside of the pond. If true, this is great for the birds, bad for those of us who want to see them.

Does this sound familiar? It should. In 2012, we had a Ruff that did exactly the same thing and showed up again. I wondered then if a reverse migration had taken place and this bird then returned after realizing it was heading in the wrong direction or is my theory of a suitable site nearby providing shelter and food applicable. To be continued as I am going to do a little exploration of a few areas I have in mind.

In the mean time, compare the two poor quality videos shot with my iPhone and Spotting Scope of "the" Ruff. Once on 6-25-16 and again today. I am convinced it is the same Ruff and it gives us an idea of how quickly these birds lose their breeding plumage.




Tags: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, Shorebird, Jamaica Bay, Ruff