Upon our arrival at Gambell in 2006 we had a report of a female Ruff (or Reeve if you prefer) wading about the small marshy area at the northeastern end of Troutman Lake. After a quick hike, we located as many as five female Ruffs. As exciting as that was, it pales in comparison to our experiences here just a few days later. While eating our breakfast, Paul Lehman called on the radio alerting the island to the presence of more than 30 Ruffs in this same location! While the greatest number we saw at one time was a group of eleven, the group did happen to include seven displaying males! Getting an accurate count of Ruffs seen for the day was impossible as the birds were flying back and forth constantly. While we sighted more than 40 Ruffs for the day many of them were most certainly duplicates. That doesn't mean we didn't enjoy each one as much as the first.