If you're a birder, you'll know what a life list is. It's basically a list of all the bird species one has observed and positively ID'd in one's lifetime. This blog is a record of my "critter" life list (mostly of birds), including photos I've taken over the years, some of the actual lifer if I was lucky enough to get the shot. Don't expect National Geographic quality stuff here, just the work of an amateur photog who loves to trudge out into nature.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor)

All photos below taken on 7/5/02 of Wilsons Phalaropes at the Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve (viewed from Mono Lake County Park), Eastern Sierras, Mono County, CA


Feasting on brine flies along the shoreline.  
 The brine flies (they look like a black cloud over the water) are super abundant along the shoreline. 




  
LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Wilson's Phalarope

SPECIES: Phalaropus tricolor

LIFE LIST DATE: 7/5/2002

LOCATION: Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve (viewed from Mono Lake County Park), Eastern Sierras, Mono County, CA

From Kaufman Focus Guide: Birds of North America:

HABITAT: Mainly a bird of prairie marshes and western lakes, often very common there, swimming and spinning on water or running about on shore. Winters mostly in Argentina. 

IDENTIFYING MARKS: 9 1/2"; Spring female distinctive with black and chestnut neck stripes, pearly crown. Male duller. Fall adults pale gray and white, with gray or yellowish legs; note actions plus thin straight bill. Longer bill and fainter face patch than on other fall phalaropes. 

VOICE: Soft wurf.
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