ML128355901

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Last night a strong storm passed through. There was a lot of heavy rain and 20 mph winds in the valley, with gusts to 45. Following the storm, there were a lot of blown-in birds being reported to OBOL, including 20 different Heerman¿s Gulls (in four separate locations)! Hoping for one of those, we jogged down to Westmoreland Park. We didn¿t find one. When I got to the casting pond I spotted two white birds foraging next to the opposite shore. They were Red Phalaropes! I yelled for Christopher, who came over and got great views. We called mom, who arrived shortly there after. Together we watched them for half and hour, getting within 2-3 feet of them! They were not injured as far as I could tell; they called a few times (a sharp, high, pip) and flew around once or twice. They mostly swam close to shore. A few times the ducks chased them, so they had to fly a little bit. There were two other birders there who also saw them. We had to leave at 4:30 when it was getting dark. Seen again through Nov 26th by many observers.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D200

ISO

250

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/750 sec

Dimensions

2881 pixels x 2161 pixels

Original file size

3.17 MB