ML84209651

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

The bird took off from the Marine Terrace as I was doing the evening gull survey. It was fairly large and mostly buffy, and my initial thought was that it was an Upland Sandpiper. While it was flying, I noted that the bill was nearly head length, thin, and slightly decurved. I then noted the white U around the uppertail coverts and realized that it was a Ruff. I called it out over the radio as a Ruff, as the bird flew over East Landing and landed on Sea Pigeon Point. I looked over to the houses and saw Dan and Bryan running down the cart path. They were looking in the general direction of the bird, and so I looked over and spotted it too. I took a photo and then stepped closer towards it, but it took flight. I took a photo of it as it was flying towards me and Dan photographed it as it flew past. In my photo, the underwing coverts are entirely white. The upperparts were buffy and scaled. In Dan's photos, the profile of the bill has a slight, but obvious decurvature and the uppertail coverts showed the white U. The bird apparently landed near Low Arch, and we were not able to relocate it.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 40D

ISO

400

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/3200 sec

Dimensions

1253 pixels x 654 pixels

Original file size

224.69 KB