I am REPOSTING a 16Dec95 post that apparently got lost in the system. Dennis
Paulson and Gene Hunn who have already reviewed it, suggested trying again as
you might find it interesting.

Dennis did set me straight regarding my query about red phalaropes off
Washington in winter referring to his *Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest.*
Oh!!, why didn't I think of that?! The obvious! Sorry Dennis.

Dennis wrote on 20Dec95 in personal email:

> About Red Phalaropes.
> I don't know if you saw my brief account on tweeters, but I mentioned in my
> shorebird book that there was a huge mid January wreck on the Washington
> coast. There have also been huge October wrecks, and all the specimens
> preserved were immatures. Adult Red Phalaropes migrate south very early,
> appearing in full basic plumage off WA in July and then probably gone,
> replaced by the juveniles pretty soon. I think it's inescapable that at
> least some of them winter fairly far north in the Pacific, if there are
> still numbers around for a January storm. There are lots of records up to
> mid or late December, and I guess people have considered these as late
> migrants, but ?

I noted that there were several posts regarding red phalaropes on *tweeters*
last week and was frustrated that I could not access any of them, and still
have not been able to.

After 4 months at sea in the warm south, my return to Washington in early
December looked and felt like the dead of winter, when in fact it IS still
late fall. My error. Reference to 1985-86 and numbers seen after the 18
January storm indicate that at least in that year, there must have been
fairly large numbers off the Pacific Northwest.
--------------------------------------------------------------

RESUBMISSION FOLLOWS:

Subj: Re: Red Phalarope
Date: 12/16/95
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu

I find the recent reports of red phalaropes around western Washington quite
intriguing. Thanks for the Gray's Harbor CBC report <David Wright>. I am
not at all surprised. Were the REPH's on the CBC distributed similarily as
described below?

I was having a technical problem here and didn't post a report from my storm
chasing trip to SW Washington, 12/12-13. The morning after the storm, I
found 85 red phalaropes at 19 different sites around SW Pacific Co. Nearly
all of those birds were in shallow rain pools on lawns, parking lots,
streets, and flooded pastures; key elements generally being shallow fresh
water flooded areas with short grass. With the exception for 4 scattered
stragglers hobbling around on beach -- partially webbed feet don't exactly
make them as nimble as say; a sanderling -- none were associated with the
ocean, or salt water, tidal, or large fresh water ponds.

At dawn, there were about 50 red phalaropes at Ilwaco, along the main water
front including 3 dead ones in the street having hit power lines. At sea,
they are not much used to watching out for such obstacles. Another good
spot was the Ilwaco Airport. Two more casualties were picked up at Fort
Canby State Park with one impaled in a tree, another just died of exhaustion
where it set down in a marsh, and a sixth was floating belly up just out of
reach in the Columbia River, two miles east of the Astoria bridge along rt.
401. The five retrievable specimens were salvaged for the U.W. Burke Museum
in addition to a northern fulmar that appeared to have struck a tree and
found dead along a heavily wooded stretch of road near Loomis Lake.

After two high tide cycles, the entire length of beach at Long Beach was
pretty clean and first indications suggested that a massive mortality which
followed the 03 December storm was not repeating. However, it may have been
too early to tell. Perhaps it takes a day or two (or more) for casualties to
reach the beach. Anyone who has information or experience in matters of
storm cast birds along the NW coast or elsewhere for that matter, I'd
appreciate hearing about it. Thanx.

The surf off Long Beach was an utterly awesome spectacle all day along there
with 25' rollers toppling in a dirty froth as far out as I could see.
However, the beach was a lousy spot from which to even hope to see pelagic
birds flying around out there -- I couldn't have even seen a 747 much less an
albatross, since I couldn't see over the tops of the waves.

It might be interesting to note that on my transit north from California on
the NOAA R/V *McArthur,* in early December, I did not see any red phalaropes
north of southern Oregon. They ran out at about the same time as the last
Buller's shearwater. Even there and off northern California in November, red
phalaropes were often just widely scattered singles with a few little loose
aggregations of 10-20 along the occasional tide or foam line and frontal
boundary, and most or those out on and beyond the shelf break.

I am unaware about the current state of knowledge of red phalarope
distribution off the Pacific Northwest or B.C. in winter. It has generally
been presumed that in some years, a few winter as far north as northern
California. Perhaps someone could bring me up to speed.

Some red phalaropes will remain in the high Arctic Alaska into late summer /
fall delaying departure until they are frozen out. A few years ago, I
participated in a bowhead, walrus, polar bear monitoring project off Barrow
from late-June to freeze-up in early October. At the moment of freeze-up at
Barrow, and while hundreds to thousands of Ross' gulls were swarming past,
many hundreds of red phalaropes were piled up along the beach for miles in
the last remnants of slushy open sea water, all from 0-3 feet off the beach.
Perhaps those, when finally forced out, just moved on to the next available
open waters such as in the Bering Sea (although in my experience, they are
not very comon there even at *peak* expectancy), or probably more likely,
widely scattering into the Gulf of Alaska, and southward, becoming more
numerous from off California south through the tropics and beyond.

It is well known that red and red-necked phalaropes *wreck* sometimes in
large numbers in Spring when the peak northward thrust is on and they are
intercepted by a strong onshore weather event. Most memorable in my
experience occurred in May, ~!973(?) along the California coast along Big
Sur to Monterrey, and on up to Point Reyes, when thousands were cast onshore
and seen *running* around everywhere. At Monterrey, they were a traffic
hazard as they strolled beaches, lawns, and streets, and I even found them
dabbling around in such odd places as in even the smallest park fountain
pools. I wouldn't have been surprised if some people may have even had them
turn up in their bathtub... thus giving new meaning to the *rubber ducky.*
For the past two Springs, mid-march thru late May, I've been stationed on
the San Luis Obispo Co., CA, coast and have never seen an event similar to
the ~1973(?) Monterrey event.

I have just never heard of autumn *wrecks* of such magnitude as the current
one in Washington, but this may be that the autumn flight is far less
concentrated and more widespread further offshore. The 1995 Washington event
certainly appears to be significant.

Richard A. Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA, USA

P.S. >> [I vaguely remember hearing about a short-tailed shearwater a few
years ago found dead in Seattle on 1st Avenue in Pioneer Square, having been
hit by a bus. Is that true, or is someone pulling my leg?!!]