Red Phalarope at Jones' Beach - 11th July

An early start to twitch a Red Phalarope that had been found yesterday on a pool at Jones' Beach. The pool was further east than my usual haunts, between the west end car park and the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Centre.

Also present were several other wader species including; Short-billed Dowitcher (30), Semipalmated Sandpiper (40), Least Sandpiper (10+), Lesser Yellowlegs (1), American Oystercatcher (3) and Killdeer (5). Non-waders included Least Terns (3) and Common Terns (5)

An adult female in full breeding plumage, absolutely spectacular. Being a Brit birder I find some of the American names for birds a bit odd, and I usually either; ignore them in favour of the Brit version (jaegers/ skuas, Bank Swallow/ Sand Martin) or use them with a sort of mental asterisk (Loon/ Diver). Not in this case. This shouldn't be called a Grey anything!

Several times it took off and flew around, but always came straight back

Also on the small pool were several mixed flocks of waders, here are Short-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper.