After being out most of the morning birding I was finally home around noon and then noticed a post from Aaron that he had a very cooperative Red necked Phalarope in a small puddle in the East Meadows. I quickly ate lunch and headed out the door to make the drive over to Northampton. I have only seen this species once before in Hampshire County and that was at Quabbin Park back in late May of 2014. I arrived to find that the bird had flushed from a small pool and had resettled somewhere in the nearby cornfields. I was able to relocate it and had some decent scope views as it preened and came in and out of view among the vegetation. The heat shimmer and distance made getting even marginal photos difficult at best. I waited a bit for the bird to move a little closer but it seemed content to sit and preen. It did eventually move back to the puddle near the road but I had already left at that point. There are just a handful of reports for this species in the area so seeing it was nice. Usually it is poor weather that puts down species like the phalarope but the weather has been clear for days with no real rain to speak of. I suppose it saw what it liked in the small area of flooded farm field as it was flying north so it settled into feed (along with a few Least Sandpipers and Solitary Sandpipers plus one Spotted Sandpiper). The three species of phalarope are very interesting in that the females are much more brightly plumaged and the parental roles are reversed with the males incubating the eggs and caring for the young. The Red necked Phalarope nests in the high arctic and then spends the rest of its time primarily at sea.
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