Phalarope Trifecta at Sal del Rey, 10/31/10

Yesterday I went up to the Sal del Rey unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR to see what the cold front had delivered. I was hoping for a Dunlin for my county yearlist and maybe some Wilson's Phalaropes. Sometimes they winter here and we get them on the Sal Vieja CBC. Well I hit the jackpot! When I got to the lake I scoped it over and could see lots of phalaropes off to the west. So I hoofed it through the mud along the south shore and periodically stopped and counted. I got 155 of them. Then I got a bit closer to them and scoped some more to see if I had missed anything. There with the Wilson's Phalaropes was a gray phalarope with a white forehead and short black eyeline. The bill was shorter than the Wilson's and thicker. Holy smokes! A Red Phalarope! My first for the county and only my second for the state.



Here it is next to some Wilson's Phalaropes. This was taken through my 300mm lens at more than 100 yards.



Scoping some more I picked out a smaller darker phalarope with gleaming white forehead and a black eyeline. It also had paler streaks runing down the dark grey back. Red-necked Phalarope! All three phalaropes in one day! Unfortunately it was too far away for a photo. Then I found a third non-Wilson's that was pale and looked like another Red but it was just too far away to do anything with and my eyes were hurting after a couple of hours of squinting through the scope at high power at small birds a couple of hundred yards away bobbing up and down in a stiffening wind. So I gave it up for the day.

This morning I gave it another go. This time the phalaropes were way out again but the wind had died down so I studied them a couple more hours. I refound the Red and three Red-necks. I was about ready to leave when Mary Gustafson showed up. As we watched them they swam to the west where the lake is a bit more narrow and we were able to get a bit closer. Through the scope we were able to note the differences and it was soon easy to distinguish the individual birds. One of them was a paler bird that was looked like a Red but was smaller. The Red-necks also have a smaller head. Here's a Red and a Red-necked.



Here's a pale and a darker Red-necked Phalarope.



In flight the Red-necked is much smaller than the Wilson's.



I'll try for better pics later this week sometime. As we were getting ready to leave Mary picked out a distant Dunlin. County year bird! Here's my list from yesterday.

Greater White-fronted Goose 50
Snow Goose 19
Ross's Goose 1
Gadwall 6
American Wigeon 1
Northern Shoveler 15
Green-winged Teal 3
Ruddy Duck 20
Wild Turkey 3
Eared Grebe 70
Turkey Vulture 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Crested Caracara 1
American Coot 12
Killdeer 5
American Avocet 40
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 20
Least Sandpiper 175
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Wilson's Phalarope 155
Red-necked Phalarope 1
Red Phalarope 2
Laughing Gull 20
Common Ground-Dove 12
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 5
Great Kiskadee 2
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Barn Swallow 100
Cactus Wren 1
Bewick's Wren 1
House Wren 10
Marsh Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
Long-billed Thrasher 1
American Pipit 6
Orange-crowned Warbler 7
Nashville Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 1
Pyrrhuloxia 3
Red-winged Blackbird 250
Great-tailed Grackle 25