I'm a total newbie at this folks, so please be patient with me.

I was just north of Telegraph Cove by the Stephenson Islets on August 2nd when I encountered a flock of shorebirds happily bobbing up and down in an area of mixed currents. The birds were quite small, dark crown, light eyebrow, dark eye stripe. Uppers were dark, underparts paler but with no visible spotting or stripes on the belly or chest. As the birds moved away from me I saw what appeared to be two distinct light lines down the birds back, one to each side of the spine. The crazy thing is that the lighter parts of the bird, including the two stripes on the back appeared yellow. Flying birds definitely had disctinctive wing coloration, but I didn't hang onto the pattern in my head unfortunately. I hit the beach at about 4:45pm, so I don't think it was the lighting producing the color. I've found pictures of juvenile and winter red-necked phalaropes that look about right,even down to back stripes on some birds, except for the color. Ideas? Do phalaropes migrate in mid-change from summer to winter plumage?

Thanks.

sounds like a Red-necked Phalarope, they come through in August and look like this.

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Paul Kusmin
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revs45
http://45revs.blogspot.com

Digital (photo) Life List:
283 birds B.C. / 427 birds N.A. / 706 birds World (including NA)

I agree with Paul. The first of the return migrants have been seen here in Alberta too. When they come through in spring they look like this

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Willi Braun, Edmonton
http://paraguayanmeister.blogspot.com/
http://www.pbase.com/paraguayanmeister

Thanks folks. Picture's worth a thousand words in this case. I was beginning to think I'd imagined the yelllowish color...