Red-necked Phalarope at Milford Point

Last Thursday, May 24, Piping Plover monitor Steve Spector found a rare Red-necked Phalarope at the Coastal Center at Milford Point not far from a Piping Plover family of four hatchlings. It fed in the water along the shore with hundreds of Semipalamted Sandpipers and a couple White-rumped Sandpipers. Frank Mantlik obtained these gorgeous photos.

 

I had some nice looks at it for a few minutes and it was awesome to see a bird in breeding plumage as this female was. Most of Connecticut's shorebird rarities end up coming in the summer or fall with juveniles and birds already having molted out of this beautiful stage. Our Coastal Center at Milford Point always knows how to draw those shorebirds and rarities in...


Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation Technician
 
All photos © Frank Mantlik and not to be reproduced without explicit permission