98-02-17, Michael Price (mprice at mindlink.bc.ca) writes (FWD message):

<< Since we have a number of seabird experts on the list, I thought this a
good
opportunity to separate the great from the merely good. '-)

M

>Dear all, a Grey Phalarope has made it to Marievale in South Africa and has
>become a local attraction. One observer noticed that the bird spins in a
>counter-clockwise direction and wonders whther they do that in the northern
>hemisphere, too, or whether they follow the example of water and spin
>clockwise here? Answers to Mike Pope <mpope at maven.co.za>, please, with a
>copy to me!
>Thanks in advance
>Peter Hirsch
>Vienna, Austria >>

Well, I really really don't think it makes much difference. 'Spinning' is
often an overly emphasized field guide and handbook reference to a behavior
which sets phalaropes apart from all other bird species thus an 'obvious' and
generalized easy interpretation to the birders eye. They really don't just
sit there and dizzily spin around endlessly like a top -- although a kind of
funny visual here now as I think about it :-)). They do 'spin' on occasion to
stir up aquatic insects, fish, and marine invertebrates and in fact during
'spinning' episodes have been clocked at 40 revolutions per minute which is
more likely to occur on a becalmed fresh water or brackish pond. One reason
for the spinning is that phalaropes which are for the most part waterborne
sandpipers have air trapped in the belly feathers to maintain buoyancy.
Otherwise and at sea, they pick around at the surface often in weed lines,
current and water mass boundaries, and even areas where nothing is obvious in
a random jerky manner where the oceans physical dynamics often makes spinning
unnecessary. I don't think the 'Coriolis drain factor' has anything to do
with whether phalaropes spin either left or right. It may be that a given
bird may be 'habituated' to a certain direction or if it really is spinning
dizzily away forever, then it probably has another and unrelated problem not
unlike some human life forms I've encountered in a South African pub '-)
Actually with the latter in mind and likely larger sample size, 'that' might
be worth a study ;-))

The 'Grey' (Red) Phalarope (_Phalaropus fulicarius_) is a rarity anywhere
ashore in South Africa except perhaps somewhat less so on occasion along the
immediate southern Atlantic west coast to the SE Indian Ocean especially
during and after storms or just blown in on tight pressure gradient generated
cold high winds which are a common occurrence in southern South Africa. Tough
little buggers they are too at sea to endure the worst that ocean storms can
throw at them. The 'Grey' Phalarope (the European name for our 'Red'
Phalarope btw because the 'grey' basic winter plumage is the one most
familiar) is pelagic and can be locally fairly common during the 'southern
summer' in the cold Benguela Current off west Africa to ~200 nmiles south of
the southern Capes (Good Hope & Agulhas) -- pers. obsv.

P.S. -- The original message didn't include the email address for Peter
Hirsch, Vienna, Austria, so Michael, if you still have it, you can perhaps
forward this reply if it seems valid enough.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)