A Diamond in the Rough

Yuma County is a county that isn't good looking at all.  It's highly composed of open, boring, and dry desert.  There aren't any upland habitats in the county.  It has a city that rapidly grows, a city called Yuma.  Personally, I don't like Yuma County-birding and non-birding.  It takes a really good bird or some sort of miraculous motivation for me to want to go.  Birding-wise to me, it does have a set of vagrant traps, various ponds, agricultural fields, and Mittry Lake for Black Rails.  I've had good birds in my Yuma past such as Black Rail, Streak-backed Oriole, and White Ibis.  Even when I landed those birds I thought they were cool, but I didn't like the birding environment.  For me, it is roughly boring most of the time.  On the other hand, there are times that Caleb Strand or Brian Johnson will find many rare birds by visiting ponds and vagrant traps.  I'll read their post and appreciate the wow factor of their finds, but then I'll still say, "nah, I'll still pass on going to Yuma".  But when an Old World shorebird recently showed up in Yuma County, I knew that a chase for it wouldn't be rough, cause it took a Ruff to break my proud streak of not birding Yuma.

On October 21st, I was at work and I saw that birders Gary Rosenberg and Dave Stejskal had reported the casual-in-Arizona Ruff to the birding community.  I was thrilled that one had been found in Arizona.  It is an awesome bird and on top of that, it had been about 10 years since the last Ruff was found in Arizona.  Like I just mentioned earlier, Gary and Dave were birding in Yuma County, and were at a location called Aztec and were visiting a dairy slop pond.  Luckily for me, I could chase the bird right after my work shift if I wanted to.  This is a great time of the year for an assortment of rare birds to show up in Arizona, and I often pack my birding gear into my truck in case I need to chase something.  While I read the Ruff report, I remembered I had brought everything that I needed.  At first, I had second thoughts about chasing the Ruff.  It would be a two hour drive one way, a similar distance of what I would drive for my birding trip that was a few days away.  Also, I had just seen my lifer Ruff in central California only to follow that up with another Ruff nearby a few days later.  I wanted a Ruff in Arizona, sure.  But I also was thinking smart too.  "Maybe I'll sit this one out, save money, and wait for one to show up in the much better Maricopa County in the future.  I'll get my state bird that way".  My smartness didn't last very long.  As Brian Johnson and Susan Fishburn successfully chased the Ruff, Brian made the comment of, "first in the state in ten years".  Brian had a strong point in his mention of Ruff records.  And it is worth a two hour drive because it is just that cool of a bird.  As 2:30 rolled around, I drove straight for Yuma County.

The Ruff get's it's name from it's peculiar appearance shown by adult males.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it, you'll see.

Whether you know what I'm talking about with the male Ruff or decided to Google it, you know now.  Females and younger males don't have as many wild feathers, and they call the females "Reeves".  Range wise, the Ruff is an Old World species that breeds from Britain and Scandinavia east to east Siberia.  It winters in high numbers in Africa as well as in smaller numbers in Europe, the Middle East, India, Indochina, and Australia.  The Ruff is much more rare in North America as a migrant and winter visitor.  It has bred in Alaska and is a regular migrant there, and is annual along both coasts and is casual in inland North America.  When they are present, they attract hordes of birders who want to see them, even though they aren't the striking males in breeding plumage.

Ruffs prefer freshwater and grassy habitats as their main habitat choice, as well as coastal pools.  Checking flooded fields may turn up one, and they have been found in Arizona that way.  Since this Ruff was in Yuma County, there was no doubt it would be at an ugly location, and the Aztec Feedlot and Farm pond is just that.  Slop is all over the pond, and the shorebirds feed in the slop when they are present.  After I left work, I pulled up to the pond and saw shorebirds in decent numbers at the pond.  Seven Greater Yellowlegs were present, and after a minute of scanning I was happy to pick the Ruff out among the others.  It's floppy tertails, a key field mark, where sticking up and riding the mellow breeze that was blowing.

For the next hour, I enjoyed the Ruff with my friends Janine McCabe, Brian Johnson, Susan Fishburn, and Mary McSparen.  Janine and I watched the Ruff fly off with the Greater Yellowlegs before the others got there.  The birds were gone for a few minutes and would come right back.  While the birds flew back in, the Ruff was easy to pick out because it has a distinctive "U-shaped" tail pattern that is entirely different than the tail pattern of other shorebirds.  The five of us birders would enjoy the Ruff as it actively foraged among the Greater Yellowlegs, a Wilson's Snipe, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Least Sandpipers.  Evening light from the west shined out on the pond and gave us great lighting on the bird.  I had been at the pond for a little over an hour, and the Yellowlegs and Ruff decided to fly off to the east.  It was the last anyone would see of this Ruff.  I'm thankful that I got to see it on an ugly slop pond.  Here is a selection of photographs I was able to obtain of the Ruff, my newest addition to my Arizona birding.

After the Ruff left, I was otherwise glad to get out of Yuma County.  What an awesome bird, and thanks to Gary and Dave for the awesome discovery!