Two Phalarope Species At Bear River MBR
Two days ago after leaving the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was able to photograph two phalarope species in a wetlands that were feeding side by side.
Two days ago after leaving the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was able to photograph two phalarope species in a wetlands that were feeding side by side.
Twelve years ago this morning I woke in Grand Island, Nebraska. I was a little more than 800 miles from my destination of Salt Lake City.
It is the season of phalarope migration here in the Great Basin hub of the Pacific Flyway and one of the best places to view these shorebirds is along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park.
Red-necked and Wilson's Phalaropes have started their fall migration and one of the places where they gather in large numbers is the Great Salt Lake where they show up in the tens of thousands to feed and rest before continuing their journey.
Last month I was able to photograph flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes on the Great Salt Lake when they were migrating through the area.
I know how blessed I am to be able to see and photograph the spellbinding spectacle of thousands and thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes lift off and take flight en masse
I was photographing a Wilson's Phalarope chick and it was in fact the youngest phalarope chick I had ever seen!
I am seeing more and more Wilson's Phalaropes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the majority of the birds I see are hatch year birds.
Bear River National Wildlife Refuge was lovely yesterday morning and one of the nice surprises I found was this juvenile Wilson's Phalarope on the west side of the auto tour route.
On my recent trip to Idaho and Montana I didn't have many opportunities with Wilson's Phalaropes except for one at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge's Lower Lake.
One thing I know for certain is that we can't drink dust.
In early June while in western Montana there was a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes on a small, privately owned pond near a gravel road foraging for prey that I couldn't resist photographing.
There were hundreds of thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes near the shoreline of the causeway, whirling around in the water and along the marshy areas not far from the park entrance.
As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 is just hours away , I wanted to do one more blog post for the year.