After hearing of unconfirmed pager reports that a Grey Phalarope was on Fewston Reservoir a search began. A brief check of the dam wall produced nothing only to have an old non-birding member of the public inform me excitedly that there was a “strange bird” which was behaving like a phalarope. “Funny you should mention it” I said as that is exactly what I’m looking for. The location of the bird was then kindly pointed out.

The bird was feeding close inshore on the Western side of the reservoir about 400 meters North of the Dam. On reaching the site the bird was visible and was feeding down to 10 feet, apparently oblivious to myself and the many walkers present. Within 20 minutes other birders started to appear with about 20 seeing the bird before dark.

First impression was of a small, elegant wader with an upright posture swimming about three meters from the shore. The bird was constantly and randomly picking food from the surface of the water with a very busy and energetic feeding action.

The bill was not fine and pointed, but fairly stocky and slightly down-curved – perhaps recalling Red Knot in build and shape although it looked much stouter when viewed head on. The bill length was about twice the loral distance, possibly a bit shorter. The bill appeared all black.

The head was white contrasting sharply with a black “mask” or thick black eye stripe which was down-turned towards the rear. Also on the head was solid blackish colouration starting on the fore-crown (although white met above the eyes) and continuing down the nape (where the black was at its narrowest) to the base of the nape. A thin amount of dark markings then continued round to join a large smudgy area on the breast sides/shoulders which consisted of a scaly effect caused by a mixture brownish, blackish and greyish feathering. This feathering then merged into an ochre wash, which although was most prominent on the breast sides was continuous across the breast.

The mantle and scapulars were a pale grey colour, reminiscent of Black Headed Gull (although not present for comparison). When viewed from behind the bird showed an obvious dark/blackish “V” and from the base of this “V” a short dark line going up the centre of the mantle to about one third of the way up. The visible primary tips also looked dark/black with very fine pale fringes with this dark feathering travelling along the edge of the wing adjacent to the flanks. As the views obtained were very close it was possible to see the whitish fringes to each individual grey scapular with each feather also showing a very fine pencil thin dark line down the centre. Had the views been of any considerable distance I doubt that either of these features would have been visible.

The flanks were white with faint grey smudging on the upper flanks and the under-tail coverts and vent appeared white.
The bird was neither seen in flight or on land by me but I believe the following day it was seen both on the grassy shore to the reservoir and in flight as it made regular short flights over the reservoir before moving to nearby Swinsty reservoir for a short while. No calls were heard.