Red-necked Phalarope(Phalaropus lobatus)

A brand new bird for me! So excited to see this utterly gorgeous open sea bird, it only occasionally gets blown ashore, as it spends most of its life out on the sea, swimming around with its head up and wings upswept. Luckily as you can see, it was in perfect condition, just very weary, I watched it for some hours, sleeping on my lagoon and after a wash and a preen it flew back out to sea, such a fantastic sight. The female in the summer has the brighter red neck and has buff and dark grey plumage on the rest of its body. The only difference I can tell between the Red-necked & the Grey-Phalarope in winter plumage is the Grey has a black needle like beak but with a yellow base, which this one does not. The extra is another photo of this rare bird.