Rarely do birders see Red Phalaropes in breeding plumage on the West Coast. The one notable exception is on May pelagic trips. In the photo above are both Red and Red-necked Phalaropes at sea off Newport, Oregon.
This was our new "Seabirds of Oregon" trip, an 8-hour trip from Newport. The first part of the trip heads over to the scenic Yaquina (ya-KWIN-a) Head lighthouse and seabird colony. This accounted for the majority of Brandt's Cormorants and Common Murres counted. Then we headed offshore, stopping when we encountered numerous seabirds about 22 miles offshore.
We traveled on the boat "Misty" with Captain Rob Waddell at the helm.
Brant 5 (bay)
Greater Scaup 20 (bay)
Harlequin Duck 2 (bay)
Surf Scoter 80
White-winged Scoter 1 (Russ only, crossing bar outgoing, distant)
Red-throated Loon 50
Pacific Loon 157
Common Loon 4
Red-necked Grebe 2 (bay)
Western Grebe 2
Clark's Grebe 1
Black-footed Albatross 62
Northern Fulmar 1
Pink-footed Shearwater 11
Sooty Shearwater 28
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 3
Brandt's Cormorant 405
Double-crested Cormorant 33
Pelagic Cormorant 129
Turkey Vulture 2 (bay)
Osprey 1 (bay)
Semipalmated Plover 1 (Tim only, near Yaquina Head, distant)
Black Turnstone 1 (bay)
Dunlin 2 (bay)
Red-necked Phalarope 205
Red Phalarope 650
Sabine's Gull 20
Western Gull 161
California Gull 56
Glaucous-winged Gull 2
Long-tailed Jaeger 1
Common Murre 40,616
Pigeon Guillemot 203
Marbled Murrelet 11
Cassin's Auklet 24
Rhinoceros Auklet 53
Tufted Puffin 1 (Russ only, near Yaquina Head, distant)
American Crow 1 (bay)
Barn Swallow 2 (bay)
American Robin 1 (bay)
Harbor Seal 5 (bay)
California Sea Lion 1
Steller's Sea Lion 2 (Greg only, on harbor entrance buoy, distant)
Dall's Porpoise 29
Gray Whale 2
Humpback Whale 1
More photos from this trip
