News Wilson's Phalarope| Wilson's Phalarope |
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| Wednesday, 21 May 2008 14:11 | ||
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Yesterday started very early -- before sunrise. It was the start of a May "Big Day". The goal was to record as many species as possible in a day. I will post separately on the results of the Big Day, so suppose you could call this the Big Highlight of the Big Day. At Rollins Savanna at around 8:30AM we saw our first Wilson's Phalarope. I have seen this interesting species before at Rollins and it has been recorded there recently. However I have never seen it in all its glory of full breeding plumage. The Wilson's Phalarope is one of three recorded in North America. It is also the only one that is regularly recorded in the Mid-West. Perhaps most interesting is that this is one of the few species where the brightly colored breeding plumage is worn by the female instead of the male! The male is quite drab in comparison. Phalaropes are known for their "spinning" feeding action where they will spin in circles. Rollins Savanna has become an ideal habitat for shorebirds with several different types of habitat from weed-lined shores to muddy edges of shallow water. Of the several Phalaropes present today, most were in pairs with a few solitary individuals. The breeding females are very attractive with colors varying from white to maroon and black. The strong spring sun exaggerated the white 'eyebrow' and really brought out the colors. I was fortunate enough to get close enough for some shots I am very pleased with (which is surprising for me as I am usually my own worst critic). Therefore, the shots above are a sample of what I was able to capture of the Rollins Savanna phalaropes, which represented just one of the 131 species we saw yesterday!
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