>Tweeters,
>
>On 9/24, Craig Miller wrote (on OBOL):
>
>>24 Sep: NO Red-necked Phalaropes at Lake Abert (after counting 11,000 there
>>a week ago!)
>
>Why don't we see phalarope numbers of this magnitude in Washington?
>
>Scott Ray
>Yakima, WA
>(509) 965-5456

(1) We don't have any of the extremely productive large lakes that are
found in southern Oregon/northern California.

(2) There's the possibility that it is better for the birds to be a bit
farther south when they feed and molt to prepare for their long-distance
migration, but somehow I think reason (1) is likely. There just aren't any
similar lakes up here.

Of course there *are* large concentrations of phalaropes off the BC coast
in spring, and smaller concentrations off both BC and WA coasts in fall,
but nothing at all like that in fresh water north of Oregon. "Fresh" may
be misleading in this context, as the big lakes in the southern Great Basin
are very alkaline, and the reduced species diversity that is a consequence
of this allows these lakes to support tremendous numbers of just a few
invertebrate species that provide the food for these large numbers of
phalaropes and Eared Grebes. Very similar situation to those lakes in
tropical Africa and the Andes that support huge flamingo populations.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416