Dear Mike and Tweeters,

Thanks to Mike Patterson for pointing out the relative unlikelihood of Red-necked Phalaropes this time of year. I for one have never seen Red-necked in December; then again, I have seen exactly one (oiled) Red in midwinter, and that was in 1978.

I will step backwards and call those Whidbey Island birds "Phalarope species, unidentified," for now.

I say for now, because I left my friends while Aiden was still clambering down on the rocks with his scope. Perhaps when he came back he had more details on the birds, which were only inches from shore, but several hundred feet up the beach from our vantage point at Partridge Point.

At first I did think they were Reds. The beaks did not seem all that needle-like to me. Later we all thought the birds had too much patterning of white, along the edges where scapulars meet mantle. The backs were certainly unstreaked. We could not see any pale coloration at the base of the lower bill.

Yours with phalarope egg on face,

Gary Bletsch

somewhere near Lyman, WA

garybletsch at yahoo.com





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