Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- Behavior; Shore birds -- North America
I watched flocks of these birds on a small pond near the Priest
Butte Lakes, in Seton County, Mont. They flew to the pond in a
compact flock, scattered over the pond to feed, and evidently
gathered insects from the surface of the water. When frightened by
the approach of a marsh hawk the birds all rose, quickly formed the
compact flock and flew away, returning later when the hawk had
gone.
_Voice._--The vocal performances of this little phalarope are not
elaborate or striking. As it rises from the water it utters a plaintive
and rather faint twittering note of one, two or three syllables, which
has been variously noted as _tchip_, or _tchep_, or _pe-et_, or _pleep_,
or _wit_, _wit_, or _quet_, _quet_. Charles W. Townsend (1920) says that
it has a variety of notes. At times it twitters like a barn swallow, at
times it emits a single harsh note like that of the eave swallow. Again
a gentle _ee-ep_ is emitted, or a sharp _quip_. According to Witherby's
Handbook (1920), "Gladstone describes alarm note as a hoarse
_chiss-ick_, and Aplin speaks of a short _quit_, a rapid _ket-ket_,
_ket-ket_. and _chirra-chirra-chirra_ at nesting places."
_Field marks._--The northern is the smallest of the three phalaropes. It
is the one most likely to be seen on inland ponds, except where the
Wilson phalarope is common; but the latter is much larger and lighter
colored, especially in fall and winter. The best field marks are small
size, small head, slender neck and needlelike bill. The upper parts are
blackish or dark gray (not pearly gray, as in the others) and in flight
a white stripe shows conspicuously near the posterior border of the
wing.
_Fall._--Northern phalaropes are very abundant during August and
September off the coasts of New England, but they seldom come near
shore, except in severe storms. The main migration route is so far off
shore, south of Cape Cod, that these birds are seldom seen in the
Atlantic coast south of New England.
There is a heavy fall migration throughout the interior, which begins
quite early. We found them abundant on both migrations in Saskatchewan
and Alberta. After I left, Dr. L. B. Bishop saw a flock of 100 at Many
Island Lake, Alberta, on July 13, 1905, the beginning of the fall
migration; they were still more abundant at Big Stick Lake,
Saskatchewan, on the 19th; nearly all of the birds taken on these two
dates were adult females; many males were probably still tending broods
of young. A. G. Lawrence writes to me that these birds are fairly common
transients in southern Manitoba, from August 15 to the end of September.
H. L. Stoddard (1923) has published the following note:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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