Okay, Bob, I can now come back to reality.  My enthusiasm over the
sighting obviously got a bit ahead of the careful checking of calibrations
for the bird's size.  "Comparable to all of the Greater Yellowlegs that were
present in the same field of view of the scope" would probably have been a
more suitable phrasing.  At my first sighting of her around noon on Monday,
I had come to the wetland berm expecting to do the same thing that I had
done on Sunday - stand there for an hour or more searching every bird
through the scope - and coming up with nothing more notable than the various
Yellowlegs.  Much to my surprise (and delight) my first scope position
caught Mrs Ruff staring right at me.  She was somewhat 'fluffed out', had
strongly pronounced dark breast splotching and lines, a bright white band at
the base of the bill, and quickly had me feeling that it was silly for us
Sunday to have been carefully scanning all of those Yellowlegs when looking
for this bird.  She essentially 'jumped out at me' in that scope view.  In
the same field of view were several other shorebirds - Yellowlegs, both
Greater and Lesser -  and though I gave short shrift to all of them, it was
in retrospect that I carried the feeling that she overwhelmed them all in
her size.  (If she had been visible when we were searching on Sunday, we
definitely would not have missed her.)   Monday morning, while I fumbled
ineptly with trying to get a photo through my scope, she flew away - and I
did not see her again until late afternoon.  In the afternoon I had long and
extensive views, and she was still present when I left.

	Now, in looking back, I may have been merely comparing her to the
female Greater Yellowlegs and to Lesser Yellowlegs when that first scope
view came into mind.  This was no 'male-sized' female Ruff; probably really
just a female with proper dimensions - along with a build that was chunkier
than the nearby Yellowlegs.  She also was more prone to fluffing out her
feathers.  A little more homework on my part could have helped, but I had
gone over there expecting to see a bird that looked much like the bird down
in Dorchester County earlier this year.  That bird differed from the
Yellowlegs mainly by the chunkier body, and short bill on a smallish head.
I was delighted to find this bird to be a female in breeding plumage.

	Good luck to anyone who comes over to search for her, and thanks Bob
for doing your reliable sanity check on such postings.  And when you come
looking, you need not spend much time puzzling over the drab uniformity of
the various Yellowlegs.  If the Ruff is present, you will not have any
trouble with separating her from any of the Yellowlegs (small or large).

Les Roslund

Talbot County
Easton MD 21601


-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Bob Ringler
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 1:58 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] RUFF at Pickering Creek - present on 4/24


Les,
   I am puzzled by your statement that the female Ruff was "clearly much
larger than even the largest of the Greater Yellowlegs". I believe male
Ruffs average slightly smaller than Greater Yellowlegs and females are about
the size of a Lesser Yellowlegs. Could you clear that up for me please?
Thanks.
--
Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD