Another Ruff Chase a year later!

Tuesday 4 May 2021 62 °F

Last thursday I set out on a mid-afternoon excursion to find a rare bird: a Ruff! I have only seen this bird one time before, and that was almost exactly one year ago right across the Wisconsin border, one of my first big chases after the pandemic hit. Thursday’s chase was much closer-to-home, in fact it was only a thirty minute drive away to Salt Creek Marsh in DuPage County! So, I showed up mid-afternoon and immediately joined three other birders in scanning the other shorebirds for the rare European visitor. PECTORAL SANDPIPERS were all over the place:

As were LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

As well as GREATER YELLOWLEGS — note the difference in bill length & thickness which is used to differentiate the two yellowlegs species. I find that if I’m doubting my ID, it’s a Lesser, and if it’s a Greater, I definitely know because of that long bill.

Two Greater (foreground) with a Lesser (back):

Then, I laid my eyes on a noticeably different shorebird — a chunkier yellowlegs-looking bird but with orange legs and an overall rusty plumage — it was indeed the female RUFF! Interestingly enough, the female of this species is called a REEVE. So, I called the one remaining birder over and we enjoyed views of this rarity.

Soon, it flew in, allowing for some wonderfully close-up views. To date, both of my Ruff sightings have been of impressively obliging individuals.

We were able to observe its feeding behavior which I documented in a short video here:
https://youtu.be/GcVStIQYulA

Another Pectoral Sandpiper:

And the Reeve just kept serving up some amazing looks.

Here it is (back bird) pictured with a Greater Yellowlegs for comparison:

After the successful twitch, I headed to a nearby forest preserve for more birding and herping. There were a few migrants including RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET: