Brig 8/13--Wilson's Phalarope

Wilson's Phalarope among the Laughing Gulls

I almost felt like I was cheating this morning, going to Brig instead of Whitesbog, but when the Wilson's Phalarope continued for the 3rd or 4th day there, I just had to get it on the list. There was also a report from yesterday of a mysterious sandpiper that was being bandied about as a possible Little Stint, which would be a lifer for me. However, I was rather dubious that I'd be able to find that bird among the thousand plus Semipalmated Sandpipers along the drive, and even if I did happen upon it the oddity, there was no sure way to identify as a wanderer from Eurasia.

Finding the phalarope was easy: Look for the birders. I parked the car close to the entrance of the Wildlife Drive, shouldered my scope and walked along, scoping out every Semipalmated Sandpiper but soon, when I got to to around 1000, got bored of looking at them. By that time I'd reached Goose Marker #4, which is becoming the hot spot at Brig (water levels seem to be best there for shorebirds) and within a minute I was onto the pretty little phalarope. Some rarities are truly rare--think Whooping Crane or Spoonbill Sandpiper, where their numbers are actually small. But most rarities are rare because they show up where they usually aren't. Wilson's Phalarope is a good example. You could, right now, go to the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and find literally thousands of them swirling around in the water. But here on the east coast, if a phalarope of any sort shows up, it's an event.

I only went around the drive once today and didn't even bother with the Gull Pond. The only other really notable bird I saw today was a Black Tern. I did stop by Whitesbog before I went home--the Buff-breasted Sandpiper was seen again today but I wasn't able to find it even though some birders had had it in the middle bogs only minutes before I arrived. I did, however, get my first Glossy Ibis of the season for Whitesbog--another bird that just popped up out of nowhere.

Glossy Ibis

Brig's day list:
43 species
Canada Goose 15
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 19
Wild Turkey 2 Entrance
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 70
Snowy Egret 19
Glossy Ibis 22
Osprey 10
Black-bellied Plover 8
Semipalmated Plover 60
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 5
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1500
Western Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 120
Wilson's Phalarope 1
Greater Yellowlegs 13
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Laughing Gull 225
Herring Gull 40
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Least Tern 2
Caspian Tern 3
Black Tern 1 Goose Marker 4
Common Tern 3
Forster's Tern 80
Black Skimmer 50
Mourning Dove 3
Peregrine Falcon 1
American Crow 10
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 2 Heard
Seaside Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1 Feeder
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
American Goldfinch 1 Feeder

The Phalarope