ML608935838

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Flying

Media notes

Red Phalarope. Note limited dark eye spot and bill structure, which is relatively shorter and stouter, and more even width throughout than as seen in Red-necked Phalarope.

Observation details

*Very rare. Only the second Clinton County record of this species. The first record came from the same location nearly 20 years ago on 21 Sep 2005 (B. Krueger, C. Mitchell). First record, in eBird, for the New York side of the Lake Champlain Basin and only one prior eBird record in R7 (8-9 Sep 2014 Little Clear Pond, Franklin Co.) Took me by complete surprise. While on the beach with the kids, I heard an unfamiliar short, high-pitched call coming from above. I located the shorebird as it was in flight and circling above the lake, which was very clearly a Phalarope, and I began firing away with my camera. I tracked the bird as it circled high, continuing to call but eventually lost it after an immature Bald Eagle came coursing through the lake. This was an obvious Phalaropus, showing mostly grayish, white and black plumage with characteristic dark eye spot and steep forehead abruptly meeting its bill. I was quickly able to to eliminate Wilson’s Phalarope as an option based on overall size, structure, plumage, bill shape, context, etc. While no side-by-side comparison available with Red-necked Phalarope, the bird imparted a rather chunky appearance. Several of my images picked up warmish, buff tones on the underparts, suggesting this may be a juvenile. Very important was that the bill size and structure appeared consistently on the heavy side for a Phalarope, across all of my images, and not nearly as long, slender and needle-like as we’d see on Red-necked. Underwing pattern was relatively pale and plain when captured in good light. However, images are fairly heavily cropped so these more subtle plumage details in wing pattern are difficult to evaluate well. Images attached with some additional associated comments.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D850

Lens

300.0 mm f/4.0

ISO

250

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1040 pixels x 693 pixels

Original file size

110.39 KB