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Jeff Wilson | all galleries >> Galleries >> Ruffs at Ensley Bottoms - Memphis, TN > Ruff - female - 5-4-05 number 3
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Ruff - female - 5-4-05 number 3

Late in the afternoon on the 4th, all the other birders had left and Pete Peterson and I did one last run around. In one pit we were able to get within a 100 feet of a large group of closely packed Lesser Yellowlegs (140+)standing, preening and calling. I recognized a migration assembly and told Pete the birds were going to leave heading north unlike non-migrating birds that go west to roost. Just before their departure I found another Reeve. The bird was easily noted to be of a different color, size and plumage from the other two which had been found the day before. The bird was pale, small and the marking on the mantle feathers unlike the other light bird which we went back to check out just to make sure. Three reeves over a two day period, it sure pays to check out each bird in a large flock of Lesser Yellowlegs. Shortly all the birds went silent and after a second they all burst into the air and flew over the steam plant, northward bound.


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