Island Beach State Park- Red-necked Phalaropes 5/31

     Yesterday (5/30) I went back to my favorite place, Island Beach State Park, to see what a couple of consecutive days of stiff northeast winds might have pushed in from offshore.  Last week I got my first Sooty Shearwaters of the season for the park.  Yesterday I was hoping the winds would bring in my first-of-the-year Great or Cory’s Shearwaters or Wilson’s Storm-petrels for the park.  I did not find any of my target birds, but I did tally 21 sooty shearwaters during my five mile sea watch drive along the beach.  

Today (5/31) the wind was still out of the northeast, but died down a bit.  I gave the sea watch drive another try.  Starting at the inlet I took my time driving north to area A7.  There still were some swells out on the water, but not as big as the day before and that would make it easier to spot storm-petrels; or so I thought.  I was getting closer to the end of my drive and I had no storm-petrels and only two sooty shearwaters.  As I was driving to another spot where I would stop and scan the ocean, I thought I caught something small bobbing on the ocean between the swells.  I almost ignored it, but the thoughts came quickly in my head, “Shorebirds don’t sit on the water.”

Then, “But phalaropes do!”

I abruptly stopped and started to scan the water behind the breakers.  It took a few minutes, but I got another glimpse of three or four tiny dark birds on the water, before they disappeared again in the swells.  I spent the next several minutes repositioning my vehicle to try to keep the birds in view.  Each time I would see them only briefly through binoculars, but not through the camera view finder.  Eventually I was able to find them in front of me and get photos when they rode the crest of the swells.  The photos were not great by any means, but they were identifiable.  They were Red-neck Phalaropes.

Red-necked Phalaropes.  © S. Weiss
There are three species of phalarope:  Wilson's, Red-necked and Red.  Red-necked and Red are pelagic, spending their non-nesting days on the open ocean.

Technically they are shorebirds, but also pelagic; so seeing them from land is rare.  I think my years of fishing and birding these waters helped me spot these little birds (less than eight inches long) in the waves.  Of the three phalarope species, two are pelagic.  The other pelagic one, the Red Phalarope, is least likely to be seen from land.  

I’ve seen Wilson’s storm-petrels at Island Beach many times and I know I’ll see them at some point this year, but these were my first red-necked phalaropes for the park.  They brought my overall total for the park to 284 species.  As I said to my friend Larry, “I figure any phalarope from the beach is good, three is pretty damn good.  Red phalarope would be asking too much.”  But you never know what Mother Nature might send our way.

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