Date: 7/16/26 9:34 pm From: Kevin Lucas via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Kozma - Red Phalarope continues at Wenas Lake
Today Jef Blake and Christopher Lindsey visited Wenas Lake, focused on (my
words) the gorgeous breeding plumage female Red Phalarope that Jeff Kozma
found there yesterday. Jef took phenomenal photos of the phalarope and
other birds and wildlife, attaching some of them to their checklists:
On Thu, Jul 16, 2026 at 11:00 AM Kevin Lucas <vikingcove...> wrote:
> Yesterday biologist Jeff Kozma found a beautiful adult female breeding
> plumage Red Phalarope on Wenas Lake, spotting her from above at North Wenas
> Road with his binoculars.
>
> https://ebird.org/checklist/S372557674 >
> I was able to go out last night and see her foraging and puttering about,
> then hunkering down, seemingly for the night. It was fully overcast,
> blowing fairly hard, and raining with lightning. My photos and video are
> grainy.
>
> https://ebird.org/checklist/S372631369 >
> I went back out this morning, hoping to see her in better light, and
> hoping, if she was still there, to let friends know. I got my wishes. She
> was feeding and puttering straight towards me when many waterfowl flushed,
> maybe from deer noisily coming out of the willows. She spent some time out
> in the lake, but came back to the water's edge after a while.
>
> As when Jeff found her mid-afternoon yesterday, and when I saw at 8 p.m.
> yesterday, this morning she was again at the (former, ghost town of a)
> resort, at the north end of the lake. The gate to that road is closed and
> locked. Walking down the dirt road takes us to an overlook good for
> scanning, and on down to the spit with my very full white trash barrel. She
> spent most of the time in the little cove just west of that little spit.
> This is NOT the "boat launch". The boat launch is near the inlet stream at
> the northwest corner of the lake. That's down a different road to the lake.
> That road is around the bend to the west, past the Stagecoach RV park/store.
>
> Jeff was able to get nice scope views of this beautiful bird this morning
> on his way back out to Wenas for his White-headed Woodpecker work.
>
> Please report banded White-headed Woodpeckers to Jeff. He really
> appreciates each and every one of the very, very few reports he gets.
>
> Also around: Least Sandpipers, Spotted Sandpipers, Killdeer, a Sora,
> waterfowl, Bald Eagles,..., lots to admire.
>
> Good Birding,
>
> https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/ >
> https://www.audubon.org/get-outside/audubons-guide-ethical-bird-photography >
> Kevin Lucas 🕊👀🚵
> Yakima County, Washington
>
> *Qui tacet consentire videtur*
>
