Scott you must be the one who was in black vehicle when I arrived this am we spent about 45 minutes no phalaropes we left to check out small ponds near by on big foot near Dearborn then on Dearborn between big foot &Belmont then around to rim the one on Dearborn best bank swallow. Yellow legs. Spotted piper black stilts I knew phalaropes moved around went back to dry lake got chair out sat for a bit along came red phalas
Daily Archives: July 28, 2020
Birds Canada, July 2020
We’re ~ still ~ discussing mercury exposure after all these years….!! 2nd publication listed at end……..
Dry Lakes Visit – It’s been a while!
After Denise Hughes post here I decided to head out to Dry Lakes. According to my eBird records the last time I was there was in July of 1991! My memories are not perfect, but it seems to have changed. There is now the one big pond along the road (which sounds like is dry most of the time) with the smaller irrigation pond just barely visible off its southwest corner on the other side of the berm and canal. My last memory is of two much smaller ponds where the big pond is now, at least one of which had water in it regularly. But who knows.
As far as my visit, I was not lucky enough to have the shorebirds right along the road for awesome photos. I did get some at much greater distance and if any are good will post in eBird. My list was similar to Denise and Cheryl’s. I heard 3 different Common Yellowthroats as well as a Marsh Wren. I also twice heard what sure sounded like a Virginia Rail back towards the irrigation pond. It is not on my eBird list as I was not positive but something for folks to be on the listen for in the future. I also had a nice group of 10 Red-necked Phalaropes. Looking at recent eBird lists there seems to be a mix of Red-necked and Wilson’s reported. Are there both species migrating through or is this a identification challenge? When on the water 150 yards away they are surprisingly hard to separate. When in flight it is much easier with the dark rump and white wing stripe of the Red-necked standing out. The one duck I could identify was a Ring-necked all the way on the far side of the water. There were clearly teal and larger sized ducks present just not sure which ones. Will look at my photos. Bank, Barn, and Cliff Swallows were present but far away and the mix and total count was impossible to know.
Was a fun visit. I also noticed some close mown fields on the west side of Dry Lakes just north of where it bends to the west and becomes Stage Coach – about half way toward Bowmont. I took a quick scan and didn’t see anything but the fields just have the look of somewhere where birds would be.
Scott