ML33734011
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - X
Media notes
Here one gets a good sense of the thickness of this species at mid-body. Many of the features of this species are diagnostic in combination but the combination one is likely to get varies across the stage of life (e.g., breeding, nonbreeding, juvenile) and by sex or gender of the individual (more later on this). Here one sees the brilliant red-orange legs that characterize both males and females of this species when they are in breeding condition.
Observation details
The several photos of the Ruff (in some cases, shown with one or two Lesser Yellowlegs) that are provided herewith were taken by using a digital SLR camera with a 50mm lens attached (focus set to infinity) to shoot through a 30X spotting scope. That scope's focus knob was the basis of visually focusing the image, and that focusing was done before the camera lens was placed and hand-held against the scope's eyepiece. The focus of each image is somewhat "soft" because of difficulties in doing digiscoping with a high-powered scope and a camera hand-held up to that scope and there being pressure on the camera each time a shot was triggered (i.e., a remote trigger was not used). The order of viewing these photos is not highly important. Reading the commentary accompanying each photo can be helpful in understanding what is shown there, including its importance for judging species and, potentially, sex of the Ruff. Some birders use the term "Ruff" to refer to the male of the species (Calidris pugnax) and the term "Reeve" to designate females of that species. Please note that in this report the term "Ruff" will be used as the English (nonscientific) species name with no implication that the bird shown in these photos is a male. Discussion of judgments related to sex (or gender) of this Ruff will be provided in association with some of the photos.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 10D
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 50 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/2.8
- Shutter speed
- 1/90 sec
- Dimensions
- 2151 pixels x 1433 pixels
- Original file size
- 631.22 KB