View allAll Photos Tagged RedNeckedPhalarope
Fairly small shorebird known for spinning frantically on water to stir up small invertebrates. Note thin, sharp bill. Breeding females are brighter and more contrasting than males: note white throat, reddish stripe on neck, and buffy stripes on back. Breeding males are duller, especially on head and neck. Nonbreeding is much less colorful: gray above and white below with streaky-looking back and black ear patch. Juveniles have blackish upperparts with buffy stripes, and a black ear patch. Breeds on Arctic tundra. Primarily found on the open ocean during migration and winter; also occurs on lakes, especially in western North America. Often in small flocks, but can gather in incredibly large numbers especially during fall migration. In migration mixes with Wilson’s Phalarope on inland lakes; Red-necked is smaller, more compact, and shorter-billed. On the ocean, frequently mixes with Red Phalarope, the only other oceanic shorebird; Red-necked is best distinguished by smaller size, thinner bill, and slightly darker, streakier-looking upperparts.
Female Red-necked Phalarope/Northern Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) newly arrived on Fetlar in the Shetland Islands
Fetlar, Shetland, Scotland, UK.
Spent a Month in the Northern Isles.
Found a lovely wee (secret) lochan in the hills of Fetlar with 3 pairs. Not a human for miles! Brilliant!
There were at least six of them, three of each gender. At this point there were kind of far in the back, but close enough together that I wanted to try to get all these in a shot. The blurred bird in the foreground is a Lesser Yellowlegs.
Red-necked Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus
Potter Marsh, Anchorage, AK
Day 2 of 17
Phalaropus lobatus Red-necked Phalarope (juvenile) taken at Doran Regional Park, Bodega Bay, Sonoma County, California.
Red-necked phalarope. Grimsey, Iceland. Unlike most birds it the female which has the brighter plumage - used to attract males. After mating the female leaves the male to incubate the eggs. She may go off to find another unsuspecting male ;-) Thanks to www.wildlifeworldwide.com
Wilson's Phalarope (left) - Phalaropus tricolor
Red-necked Phalaropes (right) - Phalaropus lobatus
Not a great shot, but not too bad from what seemed like a mile away. Luckily, we were treated to a scoped view of these cool shorebirds, a first for both Shari and I. Now I just have to get them closer to shore for a picture.
Actually, this bird was not making any sound and was probably doing something much more mundane like clearing its throat (a fly caught the wrong way).
Cayucos Creek, Cayucos, CA
Lemmon Valley, Washoe Co, Nevada (Augest 12th, 2011). 15. Sewage ponds/landfill site bordering a large playa.
Two juveniles, part of a small flock of Red-necked Phalaropes spin-feeding on brine flies near the edge of one of the ponds.
Other phalarope photos--
Juvenile Red-necked Phalarope at Oceano Lagoon, San Luis Obispo County, CA on September 5, 2008
DSLRscoped using a Canon EOS 350D, Zeiss Diascope 85 T FL, Zeiss camera adapter, Canon remote switch.
Each summer when we return to Koviashuvik, I like to watch the phalaropes.
Phalaropes are small sandpiper-like birds which many people do not know exists. They nest in the tundra at Kovaiashuvik and spin on the surface of the lake.
I watched a pair fly along the shore. Skimming along the shore they turned at a sharp angle and dropped to the glassy surface of the lake, dropped to the glassy surface where sedges grew out into the water. These two small shorebirds probably spent the winter off the coast of Baja, California in Mexico in the company of whales. They had spent the winter in the company of gray whales in the sunshine of Baja before their migration north across open water until they reached the great mud flats where the Yukon river flows into the Bering Sea. There the flock with which they traveled turned inland.
They drifted light as corks on their own reflections. With needle-like bills they jabbed for larvae which rose for air at the surface of the lake.
Then it happened.
It happened when the flat surface of the water between them swirled and bubbled. The surface roiled and the larger of the two phalaropes vanished. The little brown bird vanished as a great northern pike sank slowly beneath the surface with the phalarope hen in its gullet.
Only wide rolling ripples remained on the surface. The ripples flattened out into the lake following the male phalarope's instant flight across the water. Just widening ripples remained.
Where the birds had been feeding, the surface was now quiet. It again mirrored back great piles of white clouds above the surrounding mountains as if nothing had happened. But the world had changed. Yes the world had changed. These northern phalaropes were no longer a pair. They were different and so was I.
From Koviashuvik - Making a home in the Brook's Range by Sam Wright - "A twenty year spiritual journey in America's last wilderness"