What's next?! Apparently a Red Phalarope!

So after this crazy long weekend of 3 new Vancouver life Birds and one genuine lifer I got Metro Van bird #317 tonight after Hui Sim found one off the Iona jetty. I went out and searched for it right away as she had it on the mud at the base of the south jetty. However I could not find it there nor others so I got up on the south jetty and started scoping all the mud. My trust Kowa didn't let me down and I spotted it a glowing white phalarope from the distant jetty. I called Ilya who was searching on the beach an he ran to me and looked in my scope. It was a bit far to make sure it was not a Red-necked Phalarope so we drove in my car then walked down to the beach. The bird was moulting and since their moult is so variable in Red Phalaropes it made the id a bit tricky at first glance but after watching it for an hour we were sure by it's stocky build and thicker bill, grey plumage  etc that it was a Red Phalarope. Normally I would go and look at the other birds especially since there is a female Redhead (a rarity) in the outer pond at Iona but I stayed the full time with the phalarope. I have seen many Red Phalaropes on pelagics but you never can get close to them like this on a beach so it was awesome. Ten happy people twitched it tonight and then we went to celebrate with some drinks.

We got some photos:

Red Phalarope in Richmond (Note the chunky shape and large bill and buff neck)

I still can't get over....Friday had a Little Stint, Sat had a Snowy Plover, Monday had an Arctic Tern and now Thursday there is a Red Phalarope....

For now I can't wait to see what is next.... I'm truly wondering if I can beat my own Metro Vancouver year list record of 264 last year. 270 here I come!


Comments

  1. LonelytravellerSeptember 6, 2018 at 5:30 PM

    Congrats on finding a rare bird

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 6, 2018 at 8:43 PM

    Congrats on all the great birds you got this week!!!
    Hope you get 217 for your metro van year list this year!!

    ReplyDelete

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