Wilson’s Phalarope [Phalaropus tricolor] ~ #45

Last week my son and I had a sick day (stupid chest cold 😦 ) so we had a weekday off together. It was a beautiful day, and we weren’t feeling too bad, so thought it’d be nice to take our lunch to Burnaby Lake and enjoy the sunshine. I’ll be honest I had alterior motives as I finally got my telephoto lens back the previous day and wanted to make sure all was in working order. We enjoyed our sandwiches and took a little walk up the walkway at Piper Spit to admire the goslings, ducklings, wood ducks, cowbirds, red-winged blackbirds, sparrows and tree swallows. As we were walking back to the car I saw a solo shorebird that I realized I had never seen before! She was a little far away, and even with my telephoto the pics are not so clear, but good enough for me to identify the Wilson’s Phalarope.

I identified this bird using the www.allaboutbirds.org website. I learned that with this bird it’s the female that is more colourful and it courts for it’s mates and it’s the males that look after the young. As I’m snapping away at the shorebird I hear my son in the background, “mom … mom”.  I thought he was just getting impatient to get back to the car so I tell him “okay one more sec” as I’m trying to get a clear shot.  When I actually looked over though I see my son is being pressured down the path by a Canada Goose (who wasn’t being too aggressive just probably just looking for some food).  So I had to abandon my picture taking to rescue my son.