Date: 11/10/25 7:27 am From: Jesse Ellis <calocitta8...> Subject: [ia-bird] Re: RUFF juvenile Linn County - Powerplant Road marsh
To all who saw the Ruff and added it on eBird-
Aaron Brees has added an official hotspot for this site, called "Lewis
Bottoms marsh - private property". It would be useful for record keeping in
ebird and for Iowa Ornithologists Union to move your sightings to this
hotspot. In your account, you Manage Sightings, navigate to that sighting
and Edit Location. You can then use Nearby Location on a Map and zoom in to
find the new hotspot right near your pin and click on it.
Word was the marsh froze over yesterday, and there was little to see there.
It may thaw again and attract waterfowl but who knows about the Ruff.
Jesse Ellis
Coe College Biology
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
On Wed, Nov 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM Jesse Ellis <calocitta8...> wrote:
> Hey all-
>
> I found a juvenile RUFF this evening at Power Plant Road and Hollenbeck
> Road. The bird was on the SE side of the marsh and most easily seen from a
> little hill on Linn County Learning Farm land to the west of that
> intersection.
>
> It was mostly foraging and only once in a while flew from one spot to
> another, and only spooked once, doing a circuit of the pond and returning,
> mostly startled by Rusty Blackbirds, I think. So I'm hoping it sticks until
> tomorrow. A few other folks from Linn Co made it in time to see it before
> the light got too low.
>
> As I was leaving (well after sunsut) I stopped to chat with a kid who was
> watching the geese come in to roost, and in one flock were three Cackling
> Geese. There may have been another or two in other flocks but it's possible
> they were repeat sightings of some of the first three.
>
> THEN, the boy says "what's that?" and points up - high in the air was a
> heron, of some kind... Not big enough to be a Great Blue, and much more
> compact, but far too big to be a Green Heron, and had too long of a bill
> and legs to be a night-heron... a migrating American Bittern!
>
> There are bad photos and rough video that I think establish the ID at my
> ebird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S283062979 >
> --
> Jesse Ellis
> Cedar Rapids
>
