Vermilion Flycatcher and Red Phalarope at Long Beach, California
Vermilion Flycatcher and Red Phalarope at Long Beach, California
I wish to report the Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus) from the vicinity of Long Beach. I first saw the bird (a male) on November 20, and I saw it again on December 14. Some friends saw it December 11 and again December 17. Evidently just the one bird has taken up its abode there for the winter. Every time observed it has been within a radius of one-fourth mile. The habitat chosen is a slough with a few scattering willows and a few tules. For the most part the bird was observed perched on the top branches of willows but occasionally upon a fence post or tule. It displayed the usual flycatcher mannerisms by flying out, snapping up an insect, and then returning to the place from which it came.
There was an unusual migration of Red Phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius) this past fall. I saw about three hundred within an hour on the ponds of the Long Beach Salt Works. This was October 30. There was a great mortality among them this year. Dead birds were brought to the schools picked up by children in the streets or elsewhere. On the ponds mentioned above, dead birds were washed up in windrows. I could count nineteen from one position and twenty-one from another. I counted seventy-five within half an hour. The birds had no shot holes in them, and showed no external evidences of having flown against wires, but all the birds examined were emaciated in the extreme.
L. W. Welch
Long Beach, California, December 24, 1921
