Having read Peter Fuller's posting of a Ruff at WTP yesterday, I
immediately booked in to go today. Here's my story.
Got to north end of Paradise Pond at about 7am. Lots of Sharpies and
Stints. All pretty flighty.Thought I saw a larger bird in flight a couple
of times but couldn't get a fix on the Ruff. At about 9am most of the
Sharpies seem to leave so I went to Cons. Ponds, Borrow Pits etc. and saw
some good birds but no Ruff.
At 9.10 someone else (Peter ?) arrived at the site and saw the Ruff almost
immediately. At 9.20 another birder, Ray, arrived at the site and when
Peter went to show him the Ruff it had gone from where he had seen it.
I returned to the site at about 11.20 and was pretty frustrated to hear
this from Ray who was still there, but had not yet seen the Ruff.
I again set up my scope and proceeded to observe countless Sharpies and
Stints who shifted position every few minutes.
At 12.00 the Ruff flew in and landed directly in front of me, in the water
where it washed and preened itself. Ray, my partner Janet and I all had
good looks through the scope and our binis.
It was such a distinctive bird we had no doubt we had seen a Ruff.
It then flew off to the very far side of the pond when all the birds
flushed for some reason.
About 12.15 we picked it out again on the far side and watched it for a
couple of minutes until it walked off and disappeared into the grass
beyond the shore of the pond.
We think it spends most of its time over there. It was so distinctive we
are sure we wouldn't have overlooked it for a Sharpie during the time we
had been looking for it.
Thanks to Peter Fuller for his detailed advice, it was good to have a
definite site to look for such an elusive bird.
Other interesting birds for the day were:-
Conservation Ponds - 7 Glossy Ibis
Concrete ponds ne of Borrow Pits - Common Sandpiper
Borrow Pits - 6 Curlew Sandpipers(only ones seen), 2 Buff-banded Rails, 1
Aust. Crake, 10? Godwits and heard a Spotless Crake
Paradise Rd - 1 Mallard, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Little Eagle.
WTP is certainly a great birding destination.
Regards
Frank Pierce
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