Photo of the Week - Red-necked Phalarope (ME)
Photo of the Week - 1/27/14
‘Unique’ bird migration discovered
A tracking device which weighs less than a paperclip has helped scientists uncover what they say is one of the world’s great bird migrations. It was attached to a red-necked phalarope from Scotland that migrated thousands of miles west across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The journey has never before been recorded for a European breeding bird.
The red-necked phalarope is one of the UK’s rarest birds, and is only found in Shetland and the Western Isles.
Red-necked Phalarope use many coastal areas, like the recent Coastal Grant recipient in Harpswell Maine as stopover habitat during their migration. They are also a high priority species for the region and the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Conservation Business Strategy
Credit: Mike Baird. Original public domain image from Flickr