[Editor’s note: following content was received overnight in the ‘dropbox’ from BirdingPI.com’s national affairs correspondent. Only comment: “More/better phalarope.” Date stamps indicate Wednesday afternoon, location appears to be the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Bird IDs appended as per below.]
Following all Red Phalarope including preening behaviour:
Fun fact: per kindly eBird folks, this is only the 5th ever reported occurrence of this species in the District of Columbia.
Coming up soon: squirrels invade the nation’s capital, National Guard deployed!
Great shots! Hopefully ICE won’t send it back to where it came from!
Generally, Red Phalarope breed in the arctic over the summer, and then migrate late summer/fall (via the coastal/ocean corridor) for wintering in the south Atlantic, Gull of Mexico, Mexican Pacific coast, etc. As such, ice doesn’t have too much to do with it – more a result of the shortening of days + lower temps.
Oh, the humor about ‘ice…’ very good.
Glad the DC correspondent got some more photos! And it was nice to see so many folks admiring the Phalarope.
Also, the ‘eagle’ was assuredly a drone! Keeping two eyes out for terrorists!
Very little humour when it comes to ice!