In my homage to favourite shots from 2016,I touched on Wilson’s Phalaropes only briefly. On May 15, 2017, the middle of another cold Spring month (!), unable to find the Orioles I know have returned to Mill Creek, I drove a little further out to Robert Lake. Despite the exceedingly high water, the viewing area offered good looks at a variety of ducks, as well as a few wading birds. Among these, the WIPHs were most prominent and active. Here are a few of the different looks provided by a handful of birds that were not foraging, but preening and simply relaxing, while their fellows scurried hither and thither in the main pond on the other side of the road.
Wilson’s Phalarope female in repose….
Phalaropes are actually quite small — about the same size as a Killdeer, especially after their long trip from their wintering areas up north to Kelowna. They will grow considerably larger as they replenish all the calories expended to get here. (See ‘Cool Facts‘ below)
A western bird for the most part, WIPHs can also be found near the Canadian-American border in Ontario, QC, and NB/NS.
These birds travel long distances from South America in winter to western Canada in breeding season!
Make sure you capture…
…my best sides —both of them!
Playing it coy….
Unlike most species of birds, female WIPHs display much more vivid colours than their mates. (I’ll add more photos of males as I acquire them. The males were too busy foraging for good shots in the low light of this day….). Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology points out, moreover, that, “Females court and defend male mates—several per season—while males do most of the work of raising the young.”
“Cool Facts (Cornell)
Unlike most birds where the female has the predominant role in caring for young, female phalaropes desert their mates once they’ve laid eggs. While the male raises the young by himself, the female looks for other males to mate with. This unusual mating system is called polyandry, and it’s reflected in the way the two sexes look, with the females more brightly colored than the males.
Wilson’s Phalaropes are one of only two species of shorebirds that molt at resting sites on the migration pathway, rather than on the breeding grounds before leaving or on the wintering grounds.
While stopping over to molt on salty lakes in the West, Wilson’s Phalaropes usually eat so much that they double their body weight. Sometimes they get so fat that they cannot even fly, allowing researchers to catch them by hand.
Wilson’s Phalaropes almost always lay a clutch of exactly four eggs.
Here a male WIPH visits with (well, it looked that way to a Homo sapiens!) a Ruddy Duck drake under the fence some distance away….
Even smaller than the Wilson’s Phalarope is the Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), which have also been hanging around the same area, looking rather bemused by the high water….
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), Robert Lake roadway….
In 2015, January, as we were preparing to move up to this wonderful place, Nana and I were house sitting, ironically, just across the lane from the condo we were purchasing. I had excellent opportunities to familiarize myself with the neighbourhood, especially Thomson Marsh. At the same time, a delightful romp of North American River Otters showed up for a two week stay where the marsh widens into pools, very close to home. Despite the low light, I was able to get some photos and video. Since then, despite reports from others, I have not seen them in numbers.
Click image above to see original in Flickr.
In March 2017, I caught the back of one swimming upstream away from me, and, a day or so later, just missed seeing several in the same spot they’d visited in 2015. Fortunately, another local fotog was able to get some images.
Recently, I was reminded of the 2015 experience when Angela, one of the folks I frequently encounter on my beat, asked if I’d seen any otters lately. That gave me a chance to share some entertaining (she said) video from two years ago. I promised her links, and finally, here they are!!
The first two links are back to my Flickr site. Below them are links to my Youtube account where the videos, also available via Flickr in rough form, have been enhanced to make them easier on the eyes!
See a icon over a photo or link? Click to see an enlarged image or go to another place.
For Woodpeckers Galore, a post based on the same visit to Anarchist Mtn., click here.
May 1, 2016: As promised at the end of the Woodpeckers Galore post, I want to share photos of one of the most industrious Pileated Woodpeckers I’ve the pleasure to observe. We get so see him in dust covered overalls in the midst of his renovations of an existing cavity that is apparently to be reused. His mate sat quietly in a shady nearby tree about 30 meters away. By the way, we know he’s a male by his red malar stripe.
I have watched PIWOs excavate before, chipping away at huge chunks of a tree mainly in search of grubs living in the wood. The shot below was taken Dec. 31, 2015 in Kelowna.
My best ever Pileated Woodpecker shot; a fine specimen in peak condition, working clean….
This spring, however, PIWO’s digging reminded me, ironically, of what I saw last year when the smallest of nuthatches, the Pygmy, was working on a nest in a burned Ponderosa stump. There was a steady stream of detritus and dust being flung from the dead tree’s orifice as the shot below shows.
Pygmy Nuthatch in Spring 2016 hard at work: dust and small chips everywhere!
Woody, the subject of this post was in almost constant motion between 12:47 when I took the first shot of him already enlarging the cavity to the last one at 1:05. He had been at it, our ears told us, for some time before we located him, and he wasn’t finished when we withdrew for lunch. Around the time we left, he did take a break to communicate with his mate and to check the area.
Here are the photos. The blurriest betray the constant motion mentioned earlier. In many cases, I had to time my pressing of the shutter button to catch his full profile….
Posterior of a PIWO preparing a place for progeny….Ruffled feathers but a noble profile, don’t you think? Does he know we’re watching?In this photo, I think we have the answer. He knows, and he’s okay with our presence….
Doing the job! Click any photo in cluster to enlarge them all….
Extraction…
Gathering…
Flinging over his head…
Dusty work…
and a breather!
This shot shows the dust better and shows the resemblance to the PYNU’s work….More chunks in motion; shutter speed catches him in the moment….
Checking for his mate…
Listening for her call….
Back to work….
Builder Bob!
I hope to return from time to time to find out whether Woody and Wimsie are successful in raising another generation of these largest of our many fascinating woodpeckers….
The Pileated Woodpecker digs characteristically rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These excavations can be so broad and deep that they can cause small trees to break in half.
A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. It will defend the territory in all seasons, but will tolerate new arrivals during the winter.
The feeding excavations of a Pileated Woodpecker are so extensive that they often attract other birds. Other woodpeckers, as well as House Wrens, may come and feed there. (Interestingly, we saw a House Wren on the day we visited this guy!)
The Pileated Woodpecker prefers large trees for nesting. In young forests, it will use any large trees remaining from before the forest was cut. Because these trees are larger than the rest of the forest, they present a lightning hazard to the nesting birds.
The oldest known Pileated Woodpecker was a male, and at least 12 years, 11 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Maryland
Food: Insects
“The Pileated Woodpecker’s primary food is carpenter ants, supplemented by other ants, woodboring beetle larvae, termites, and other insects such as flies, spruce budworm, caterpillars, cockroaches, and grasshoppers. They also eat wild fruits and nuts, including greenbrier, hackberry, sassafrass, blackberries, sumac berries, poison ivy, holly, dogwood, persimmon, and elderberry. In some diet studies, ants constituted 40 percent of the diet, and up to 97 percent in some individuals. Occasionally, Pileated Woodpeckers visit backyard bird feeders for seeds or suet.”
Nesting: Nesting Facts
Clutch Size: 3–5 eggs
Number of Broods: 1 brood
Egg Length: 1.2–1.4 in ; 3–3.5 cm
Egg Width: 0.9–1 in ; 2.4–2.6 cm
Incubation Period: 15–18 days
Nestling Period: 24–31 days
Egg Description: White.
Condition at Hatching: Naked and helpless.
Nest Description
“The male begins excavating the nest cavity and does most of the work, but the female contributes, particularly as the hole nears completion. The entrance hole is oblong rather than the circular shape of most woodpecker holes. For the finishing touches, the bird climbs all the way into the hole and chips away at it from the inside. Periodically the adult picks up several chips at a time in its bill and tosses them from the cavity entrance. Pileated Woodpeckers don’t line their nests with any material except for leftover wood chips. The nest construction usually takes 3-6 weeks, and nests are rarely reused in later years.* Cavity depth can range from 10-24 inches.” * This appears NOT to be the case for our bird….
“Considered a keystone species, the Pileated Woodpecker plays a crucial role in many forest ecosystems in North America by excavating large nesting, roosting and foraging cavities that are subsequently used by a diverse array of birds and mammals—for shelter and nesting—particularly the larger secondary cavity users (e.g., Boreal Owl, Wood Duck, and American marten; Bull et al. 1997, Bonar 2000, Aubry and Raley 2002a). Pileated Woodpeckers accelerate wood decomposition and nutrient recycling by breaking apart snags and logs and may facilitate inoculation of heartwood in live trees with heart-rot fungi. They may also be important in helping control some forest beetle populations because their diet consists primarily of wood-dwelling ants and beetle larvae that are extracted from down woody material and from standing live and dead trees.”
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