Ruddy Turnstones and Red-necked Phalarope at the El Paso Sewage Treatment Center

After work on Friday, May 22, I went to Ewing Park to look for Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. I got a couple glimpses of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo way up in the canopy, and I was looking for the flycatcher when I received a call from Matthew Cvetas asking if I had intel on 5 Red-necked Grebes that had been seen the previous day at the El Paso Sewage Treatment Center. I checked ebird and called Ted Hartzler to learn that not only was one of the Red-necked Phalarope there, but there were also two Ruddy Turnstones present.

I hiked back to my car and drove straight to El Paso where I ran into Don Hartzler. We saw 25 Dunlin, 12 Semipalmated Sandpipers, and a Stilt Sandpiper in the Northwest lagoon. Although the first photo is blurred by the haze, you can see what a beautifully patterned bird the Stilt Sandpiper was.





We found the remaining Red-necked Phalarope, the first I had ever seen in breeding plumage, in the center lagoon.





When we checked the Northwest lagoon again, we located the Ruddy Turnstone pair.











Here is a photo of the two Turnstones with a Dunlin and a Semipalmated Sandpiper.



I thought this photo of the Red-necked Phalarope next to a Ruddy Duck illustrated how small the Red-necked Phalaropes actually are.



Other shorebirds we saw at El Paso that evening included 1 Semipalmated Plover, 6 Killdeer, 6 Spotted Sandpipers, and 4 Least Sandpipers. Also of interest were 1 Blue-winged Teal, 1 Lesser Scaup, 2 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Black Terns, and an American Pipit.