Eurasian Wading Bird, The Rarely-Spotted 'Ruff', Seen At Hammonasset

MADISON, CT —At Hammonasset Beach State Park Wednesday, a sandpiper called a Ruff (Calidris pugnax) whose range is Southern and Western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia, was spotted by birders and nature photographers Karen Gallo and Matthew Male.

"Matt and I discovered it around 4 p.m. yesterday," Gallo said. She got a bird ID confirmation from birder and photographer Joe Cala shortly after. Soon, the word had spread.

"Soon there were 30 or so people there to see it," Gallo said.

And by Thursday morning, many more birders arrived. And the Ruff did not disappoint.

"It was also there early this morning. Very cooperative bird, not spooked by people too much, but definitely spooked by the raptors flying overhead," she said.

The wading bird, is a "rare" but regular visitor to the U.S., Matthew Bell of CT Audubon told Patch, but have only been recorded around 20 times in Connecticut.

"This record is significant as it’s the first multi-day record for the state since 2016," Bell said. "The last Ruff in Connecticut was a one-day wonder in 2018, also at Hammonasset."

Bell and many other birders including Gallo and Male patiently waited to sight the piper, laying in the marshes and wet grasses at the popular park, again at dawn Thursday at Hammonasset.

Bell said the Ruff discovered by Gallo and Male is a "juvenile, which is typically what we see this time of year during migration, as young birds are more likely to wander and be blown off course than an adult."

"The lack of rain this year has led to a slower than normal shorebird migration in Connecticut, so the Ruff was a welcomed sight," Bell said.

Gallo, who is an acquaintance of this reporter, and Male "discovered this shorebird cavorting in the puddles left behind by the recent storm," she wrote on Facebook.

"This time of year usually brings a lot of migrating shorebirds to our area, specifically at Hammonasset, where they are easily observed and photographed in puddles left behind by rainstorms," Gallo said. "With the drought, it has been disappointing of late, but that was all changed with the sighting of (the rare bird)."

"Though there have been many recorded sightings over the years, they don't even belong in the western hemisphere, so it's pretty exciting to see one," Gallo wrote.

Editor's note: This author's son, Che Santiago, who provided reporting and photography for this story, works as a park ranger at Hammonasset Beach State Park.