NORTHERN PHALAROPE. Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus)

Field characters.—A 'wader' much smaller than Killdeer; bill needle-like. Whole under surface pure white; back dark brown in spring and summer, pearl gray in fall and winter; sides of neck rusty brown in spring and summer. Swims buoyantly in companies on open water.

Occurrence.—Numerous at Mono Lake during seasons of migration. Observed May 24 and 27, 1916 (Dixon, MS), and in August and between September 2 and 21, 1901 (Fisher, 1902, p. 10).

The Northern Phalarope is one of the small water birds that nests in the far north and winters to the south of us. It thus occurs in our latitude only for a brief period in spring and again in the fall. At these times it is likely to appear on any body of water either east or west of the Sierran divide.

These birds are adept swimmers and gather their food from the surface of the water by rapid darting movements of the head and neck. Their delicate bills serve unerringly to capture the small objects which are taken as food. At times a bird will spin around rapidly so as to produce a miniature whirlpool or vortex and thus swirl the animalicules from below up to within easy reach of its bill. Thus these birds do not need to dive below the surface for their food as do so many of the water birds, as, for instance, the grebes.

Dr. Walter K. Fisher (1902, p. 8) states that in the fall of 1901 large numbers of southbound Northern Phalaropes visited Mono Lake and fed on the brine shrimps which abound there. The phalaropes fell easy prey to hunters, who called them "Mono Lake pigeons."