Monday, April 16, 2012

Room for Two?

This week is AIMS week, the week in which my students take lots of standardized tests to tell us and them how they compare to other students and schools across the state and country. These tests are woefully inadequate and fraught with analytical problems, but I'm still not complaining because this means I have very little work to do this week in terms of lesson preparation. That dull anecdote was necessary only to say: I had some time to go birding Sunday afternoon.

I decided to try for a rare double-whammy, first stopping by the Glendale recharge ponds to chase a few unusual birds before quickly heading south to the Tres Rios site. The recharge ponds were a total flop last week, but in the twenty minutes I spent circumventing and surveying the first basin, they more than made up for their previous vacancies. The miniature lake was mostly populated with Black-Necked Stilts and Mallards, while Least Sandpipers lined the shoreline. Amidst these larger and darker birds, it was pretty easy to pick out the Red-Necked Phalarope and Bonaparte's Gull.


While scanning the wide, reflective water basin, the Gull was the first unusual sighting. As is always the case at the GRP, the bird was very far out on the water. Not too far away from the Gull there floated a much smaller bird with just a hint of red on the neck. 


Even at a distance, seeing a new bird is always greatly satisfying, and in this case it was a pretty rare bird too! It wasn't the soul-satisfying view that comes from a close encounter, but I'll take it! The Phalarope seemed to be buddies with this Black-Necked Stilt. It is also possible that the Phalarope was just using the taller bird as a mobile shade.


The Bonaparte's Gull took off pretty soon and, for once, I got my best look of the bird while it was passing overhead. There was a Franklin's Gull also reported in the area, but this bird seems much too light on the wings and there was no discernible red on the beak.



Two new birds is not bad for the first stop on a two-part birding adventure!

14 comments:

  1. How nice to get images of the Bonaparte's and Red-necked Phalarope!

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    1. It's always nice to get some new birds. Of course, these images are like primitive cave paintings of birds, but with the targets near 70 yards away I'm just glad its diagnostic.

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  2. Great day!! Adding two new birds to you list! Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks KaHolly. I've never found a new bird I didn't like. Now these two are my favorite gull and Phalarope respectively, of those that I've seen.

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  3. It's always great to see new species isn't it! I saw some at Great Meadows NWR here in MA over the weekend. Those photos will post tomorrow. For now, let me say thanks for your visit to my blog and answer your question. as far as white-throated sparrows being in Penn when you will be there my best guess would be no as they are usually gone from here by the end of this month or the beginning of May and we are even farther north. You can check the bar charts on eBird by going to the View and Explore Data tab. You do not need to have an account with them to do this. Once you click on the tab, then click on the Bar Charts and then the state you are interested in. It will bring up a bar chart of all the species reported to eBird and next to each species name will be a button with a map. If you click on the map it will show where that species has been seen. This may be of some help to you as any sighting newer than 30 days is marked with a different colored pin. Check it out and you will soon see what I mean. It's a lot of fun and helpful too!

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    1. Thanks Kathie. I did peruse the eBird...but it didn't tell me what I wanted to hear so decided to find a new prophet. Alas, you've confirmed the data. I'll have to make a daring and reckless trip up into Canada I guess.

      Looking forward to seeing your new species.

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  4. Congrats on your new birds. Great post and lovely birds. My favorite is the Phalarope. Happy Birding!

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    1. Thank you Eileen. There are few better pick-me-ups than seeing some new birds.

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  5. Great birds, and I love the shot with the stint and phalarope to give a sense of size.

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    1. Thanks Dan. It was funny how that worked out. The Phalarope was much smaller than I expected.

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  6. The "mobile shade" made me laugh. I swear my dog does the same thing to me. Congrats on the birds!

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    1. hehe thanks Jen. I took a few more photos of the Stilt/Phalarope relationship and the Phalarope really does try to stay in its shadow. Unfortunately those photos are even blurrier.

      Thanks for stopping by.

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