A Ruff was being seen in a flooded field off hwy 67 in Walworth County. I wasn’t going to go, but after I saw a photo of it on the rare bird report, I knew I had too. I saw a Ruff at Horicon a few years ago, but that was a nonbreeding male. When I arrived, there were a lot of people there. I parked on the side of the highway and got my camera on it. As soon as I was about to snap my first picture, it flew. I thought I had missed out. However, it flew and landed 25′ from my truck. I couldn’t believe it! What a beautiful and cool looking bird! Being so close to it was awesome! It flew a short time after that, and I watched it land in the farmers field to the southeast. I stayed and watched the numerous other shorebirds. About 15 minutes later, it flew back in, but landed way out in the muddy field. After a few minutes of foraging, it flew back into the water, on the far end. After a little foraging, it again flew and landed right by me. I watched for another 40 minutes or so, and by then light was fading quickly in the overcast sky. Images below are from the evening. Enjoy!
Red Knot in Milwaukee 9/3/19
A juvenile Red Knot took a southern migration break at Lakeshore State Park on 9/2/19. I didn’t hear about it until the next day, when a friend asked me for an ID on a shorebird. I took a look at the photos and to my surprise, it was a Red Knot! I immediately text my group of bird friends, and said it might be worth checking the beach in case it hung around. Usually they don’t and are only one day birds, or even only around several hours. One of them said they could be there within the hour and check it out. A little while later, received a text saying, “it was still there!”. Now I had a choice to make, leave work, race down there and go back to work or work faster, get done sooner and leave early… I stayed and left early. I got down the park about 1:30pm and it was still around. I walked over to the beach area and laid on ground and waited for it to walk over to me. After about 10 minutes or so, it was right in front of me, feeding on the water’s edge. It was a very tame bird, considering it has probably never seen people before. It actually even took a brief, one minute nap, only 15′ from me! At one point, it was only about 5′ from me. It was so close, I slowly slid out my cell phone and recorded video of it. It’s always nice to be able to see a rarity so close! The pictures below are from the day.
