FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Phalarope phun

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

As mentioned by Hap in an earlier post, I joined her "tour group" yesterday
and we were treated to fine study of the juvenile Red Phalarope at Jonathan
Creek.  I believe this bird has even less gray in the back than the
September 2000 bird in Mercer County.

After leaving Hap to return southward, Roly, Mary and I checked the Eddy
Creek mudflats off Lake Barkley and were treated to another nice group of
shorebirds that included a pretty juv. American Golden-Plover, probable
Short-billed Dowitcher (in flight), Green-winged Teal, and a number of
herons/egrets.  The shorebirds were all a jitter for most of the time we
were viewing them, unbeknownst to us (initially) due to the presence of a
sharp looking Merlin (with a full crop) we watched make an apparently final
pass of the area before circling south, trading dive-bombing interactions
with a local male American Kestrel the entire time.  One juvie Lesser
Yellowlegs assumed a horizontal posture next to a log in the water and held
it's position for at least 10 minutes; many of the rest of the birds had had
enough and had already departed several minutes earlier.

On my way back east, I visited the Camp Mines complex in Union County. The
sun was setting, so scans were pretty quick. At one of the impoundments, a
flock of about 150 Blue-winged Teal was resting in the shallows.  As I was
scanning through to get an approximate count, I noted a small, pale
shorebird swimming among them . . . a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope!  I
moved around to get a closer look and snuck up on the teal.  The sun was
already low and obscured by clouds for its last few minutes of the day, and
the wind had begun whipping pretty strongly out of the west as the cool
front had passed a couple of hours earlier. The teal were bouncing in the
small swells and the phalarope was bobbing like a cork, frantic as they
often are picking prey from the surface of the water.  It was apparently
feeding among the teal because they were stirring up the bottom; several
times it moved away from them but soon returned.  Seemingly ungrateful for
the service that the teal were providing, this tiny little bird (looked like
it was 1/4th the size of the teal) approached and poked teal that were
immediately in its path, causing them to jump out of the water.  What a
ruffian!

bpb, Louisville
brainard.palmer-ball AT mail.state.ky.us
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