adult, male, Wilson's Phalarope in breeding plumage

It's been quite a week for phalaropes. This female Wilson's phalarope appeared at Montlake Fill, right in the centre of Seattle, this morning - thanks to Bob Vandenbosch for finding it. By the time I managed to head over there in early afternoon, camera in hand, the storm clouds started to gather and the heavens opened. Previously I had generally avoided going out to take photos when it was cloudy, never mind when it was raining. Digiscoping requires a lot of light as the aperture of the scope is relatively small. My Kowa TSN-4 is only 77mm in diameter so to avoid low shutter speeds, where vibration is a serious problem, the more light there is the better. I had already been over to eastern Washington twice already this year in search of Wilson's phalaropes with some modest success. However this opportunity was too good to be true, despite the weather. It also saves the three hour drive each way to the other side of the Cascade Mountains.

The bird was easily approachable (typical for phalaropes) as it fed along the edge of one of the ponds. So with my coat draped over the camera to keep it dry and with the rain running down my neck I started snapping away. Phalaropes are notorious for not staying still for a second however the weather was actually on my side as the bird stopped to preen regularly to keep its feathers in good order and so keep dry. After filling two 256 Mbyte flash cards I rushed home to view the results just in case I had to rush back again to try again. Most of my attempts to photograph the bird when it was feeding either came out blurred or more usually the bird had it's head in the water or was looking away. However on the few occasions it stayed still the results were quite impressive, given the conditions. More photos can be found on the Recent Photos page.

Phalaropes are an interesting family of waders. The roles of the sexes are completely reversed. The female is the more brightly coloured and competes with other females for males. The male not only incubates the eggs but also looks after the young. The female leaves the male as soon as the eggs are laid and in some cases may mate with a new male and lay another clutch of eggs before leaving the breeding grounds to moult. Outside of the breeding season the Red and Red-necked Phalarope spend their time entirely on the open ocean and in some ways could be considered to be a species of seabird rather than a wader. Wilson's phalaropes are more typical of waders. Once they leave their breeding grounds in the central and western states of USA and Canada they spend the winter on ponds and marshes in the Argentinian Pampas and sourrounding areas of South America.

Only a few Wilson's phalaropes are seen in western Washington each year. They are common east of the mountains where they breed on the alkaline lakes and marshes, particularly around the Potholes area of central Washington. Curiously a female Wilson's phalarope turns up at Montlake Fill in late May on an almost annual basis. They used to breed at a few locations in Western Washington and around Vancouver, Canada (though not recently) so it is possible that the species is still expanding it's range and may breed again in the future.