Red-necked Phalarope

On Saturday I was looking for a bird called a red-necked phalarope.  I was walking a transect in a marsh in the south of the country.  I was supposed to count every bird within 50 m on either side of the line I was walking.  At the same time I was babysitting two babies.  One was my 5 year old son.  The other was a 26 year old Frenchman.  It’s amazing that he made it through an entire semester of ornithology-in which a large portion of the emphasis of the class was laid on identification of species-without learning a single damn bird!  But I digress from the point of this missive to my adoring public.  The point is that during that walk, the bird I was most hoping to see (the red-necked phalarope) didn’t show its face.  However, today when I drove into Keflavík to buy some paint and fish food I happened to bring along my binoculars.  I was fortunate I did because in the little pond across from the Bonus grocery store I found a flock of these beautiful tiny birds.  In all I counted 32 but later when I was driving home, I saw that more had arrived in the interum. Before today I had only seen 3 of these cute little critters.  I guess it paid off to be prepared.