{"id":3928,"date":"2011-12-31T20:36:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T02:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2024-08-18T05:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T10:56:29","slug":"a-rainbow-and-wilsons-phalaropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/12\/31\/a-rainbow-and-wilsons-phalaropes\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow and Wilson&#8217;s Phalaropes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 is just hours away I wanted to do one more blog post for the year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-132700 size-full\" title=\"Rainbow and Wilson's Phalaropes\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344.jpg\" alt=\"Flock of Wilson\u2019s Phalaropes in a rainstorm with a rainbow, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Beaverhead County, Montana\" width=\"850\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27474%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20474%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27474%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-200x112.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-250x139.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-400x223.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-600x335.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344-800x446.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Rainbow and Wilson&#8217;s Phalaropes &#8211; Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/400, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The day I created this image I\u00a0had been\u00a0photographing\u00a0shorebirds in the shallow water near the dam when a storm came into the Centennial Valley. The clouds were dark and ominous but it didn&#8217;t look like the storm would last long so I continued to take images.<\/p>\n<p>Soon there was thunder, lightning, rain and hail.\u00a0 I had never thought about what birds do in storms as much as I did that day while the hail pelted the hundreds of shorebirds in front of me.\u00a0 They seemed too delicate to survive the pounding they were getting from the hail.<\/p>\n<p>The birds\u00a0survived the storm and shortly after the hail let up the sky started to lighten, the birds in front of me shook off their wet feathers and this flock of Wilson&#8217;s Phalaropes took to the air with a rainbow behind them. They flew back and forth as if they were jubilant that the storm hadn&#8217;t beaten them down.<\/p>\n<p>I know, I&#8217;m just putting my human emotions into what I saw, but truly I couldn&#8217;t help but think that was what the birds\u00a0were doing.<\/p>\n<p>Happy New Year everyone,<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wilsons-phalarope-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Wilson\u2019s Phalarope photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 is just hours away , I wanted to do one more blog post for the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,223,12,608,1140],"tags":[4004,4052,4122,519,3915,3824,4287,4288,274,1143,4095,102,2442],"class_list":["post-3928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-wilsons-phalaropes","tag-adult","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-nature","tag-phalarope","tag-phalaropes","tag-phalaropus-tricolor","tag-rainbow","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-storms","tag-wetlands","tag-wildlife","tag-wilsons-phalarope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-flock-rainbow-flight-mia-mcpherson-6344.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-11m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8700,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/25\/wilsons-phalarope-a-whirligig-bird\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":0},"title":"Wilson&#8217;s Phalarope &#8211; A Whirligig Bird","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In early June while in western Montana there was a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes on a small, privately owned pond near a gravel road foraging for prey that I couldn't resist photographing.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Wilson\u2019s Phalarope foraging, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-mia-mcpherson-4190.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-mia-mcpherson-4190.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-mia-mcpherson-4190.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-mia-mcpherson-4190.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6452,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/10\/28\/hail-yeah-storm-at-red-rock-lakes-dam\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":1},"title":"Hail Yeah &#8211; Storm at Red Rock Lakes Dam","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I began photographing birds in Florida I have gotten used to getting wet to photograph shorebirds, wringing wet at times but my gear has never been as wet as it was the day I took these images from inside the pickup.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Avocets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Avocets flying in a driving rain, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocets-rain-storm-mia-mcpherson-6246.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocets-rain-storm-mia-mcpherson-6246.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocets-rain-storm-mia-mcpherson-6246.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocets-rain-storm-mia-mcpherson-6246.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25504,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/16\/a-wilsons-phalarope-and-a-midge-at-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":2},"title":"Wilson&#8217;s Phalarope And A Midge At Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On my recent trip to Idaho and Montana I didn't have many opportunities with Wilson's Phalaropes except for one at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge's Lower Lake.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wilson's Phalarope and a Midge, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/wilsons-phalarope-midge-mia-mcpherson-5648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/wilsons-phalarope-midge-mia-mcpherson-5648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/wilsons-phalarope-midge-mia-mcpherson-5648.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/wilsons-phalarope-midge-mia-mcpherson-5648.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5218,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/06\/22\/whoa-that-is-a-lot-of-wilsons-phalaropes\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":3},"title":"Whoa, that is a lot of Wilson&#8217;s Phalaropes!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There were hundreds of thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes near the shoreline of the causeway, whirling around in the water and along the marshy areas not far from the park entrance.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40511,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/07\/13\/wilsons-phalarope-chick-at-red-rock-lakes-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":4},"title":"Wilson&#8217;s Phalarope Chick at Red Rock Lakes NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was photographing a Wilson's Phalarope chick and it was in fact the youngest phalarope chick I had ever seen!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wilson's Phalarope chick in pond","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wilsons-phalarope-chick-montana-mia-mcpherson-3172.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wilsons-phalarope-chick-montana-mia-mcpherson-3172.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wilsons-phalarope-chick-montana-mia-mcpherson-3172.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wilsons-phalarope-chick-montana-mia-mcpherson-3172.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27042,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/03\/young-wilsons-phalaropes-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":3928,"position":5},"title":"Young Wilson&#8217;s Phalaropes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I am seeing more and more Wilson's Phalaropes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the majority of the birds I see are hatch year birds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Wilson\u2019s Phalarope at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-1994.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wilsons-phalarope-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-1994.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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