Wilson's Phalarope stops in Port Hope

Nature Notes for September 27, 2013

The water level in the A.K. Sculthorpe Woodland Marsh, alongside the Waterfront Trail at the east end of Port Hope has been quite high this fall. This makes it unsuitable habitat for all but the most long-legged shorebirds. On September 11, there was one GreaterYellowlegs in the marsh, a suitably tall bird for the depth of the water.

But there was another shorebird, playing hide-and-seek amongst the Mallard flock. This bird sent my husband scurrying back to the car in the parking lot to fetch the spotting scope to have a better look. Gray back and head, white underneath, with a fine, needle-like bill: this was a Wilson’s Phalarope in winter plumage.

In the breeding season, they are more colourful. As with all of the three phalarope species, the female has the brighter plumage. The female Wilson’s has a strong stripe through the eye and down the neck, black on the face and neck, blending into cinnamon on the neck. It is gray above and white on the belly, gray and cinnamon on the wings, with a white rump. The male is a much more faded version of this colouring, with only a hint of cinnamon on the neck. Female phalaropes are also larger than the males.

With all phalaropes, the male incubates the eggs and cares for the young. The behavior led John James Audubon, the man who first described these species to Europeans, to confuse male and female.

In spring, the females arrive on the breeding grounds before the males and compete with other females for mates with a colourful display.

Females may lay more than one clutch of eggs in different nests with more than one male, a behaviour called polyandry. As with most shorebirds, the nest consists of little more than a depression in the ground, lined with grass, and hidden in dense tall grass or sedge, near water.

Phalaropes have an unusual technique of feeding. They spin around in the water, changing direction often, in order to stir up the aquatic invertebrates which are their primary food. This bird was swimming around the foraging Mallards, probably because the ducks were churning up the water, and thus, turning up food for it.

Although there are scattered breeding records for Ontario, Wilson’s Phalaropes breed primarily in the prairies of Canada and the U.S. It is an inland species and a species unique to the new world. The other two phalarope species, Red and Red-necked, also occur in the Old World and nest near salt water in the high Arctic. Wilson’s Phalarope nests near freshwater or brackish ponds, often on islands. Where is does nest in southern Ontario, it favours the verges of sewage lagoons for breeding.

Several years ago, a pair of Wilson’s Phalaropes were found in a wet pasture field on Chub Point. They were seen throughout the spring and may have nested there, although no young were ever found.

Most Wilson’s Phalaropes that appear in Northumberland County are, however, migrants. These birds are usually found in wet grassy fields or shallow ponds. Occasionally they turn up on the beach at Presqu’ile.

Wilson’s Phalaropes winter in large shallow ponds and saline lakes in the grasslands and mountains of South America. In contrast, Red and Red-necked Phalaropes are pelagic in winter. That is they winter on the ocean

The Wilson’s Phalarope in Port Hope lingered for two days and was seen by several of the local birders.