On any given Sunday afternoon along the National Mall, tourists are strolling, people are biking, and ducks are gliding across the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. But this weekend there was an anomaly among them: a Wilson’s Phalarope. 

“They’re rare here on the east coast,” says Kari Cohen, treasurer of the DC Audubon Society, who says this species of bird hasn’t been seen in the area since 2017. 

A Wilson’s Phalarope is a small wading bird with tall legs, brown and white plumage, and a long, thin beak. (Females of the species are more colorful, sporting peach and gray feathers.) To the untrained eye, he might look like a duckling swimming among his own kind. 

According to Cohen, Wilson’s Phalaropes typically spend their winters in South America and then migrate north along the west coast of the United States during the warmer months. This guy, Cohen guesses, was likely blown off course by a strong wind. He easily could’ve been missed, Cohen says, if he didn’t choose one of the busiest spots on the weekend to hang out: the reflecting pool. 

“The reason why it was found was because it showed up in a conspicuous spot,” Cohen says, adding he was out-of-town this weekend and was “kicking himself” for not being able to see it in person. 

Meanwhile, Matt Felperin, roving naturalist for NoVa Parks and avid birder, was on his way to lead a kayak tour in Lorton, Virginia when he saw reports of the bird on a group chat made up of local birders. Birders were also posting their pictures on eBird, an online database of bird observations, including one showing several photographers clustered around the tiny bird. 

Felperin went to lead his kayak tour, bringing his top game as always, he says, but admits he “couldn’t help but think about that bird.” As soon as his tour wrapped up, he headed to the reflecting pool and immediately spotted it. 

“It was right in the northeast corner of the reflecting pool, right by the World War II memorial,” he says. It was just around 6 p.m. at this point and he says most people were walking by or simply admiring the ducks, unaware that an imposter was in their midst. 

“I wouldn’t expect any layperson to recognize the bird,” Felperin says. But as a photographer, he knew what he had to do: Felperin got his camera out and plopped down onto his stomach to take pictures at level with the bird. Some people, surprised to see someone lying on the ground by the pool, stopped to ask him what he was looking at. 

“Some people recognized that it was a sandpiper. Some people understood that it was different,” he says. He observed the bird for about an hour, during which the bird never stopped eating in its peculiar fashion: By spinning rapidly in a circle to kick up food from the bottom of the pool. According to Cornell University, Wilson’s Phalaropes can eat so much during pit stops they double their body weight, sometimes making them unable to fly. 

For Felperin, the experience was special. 

“I was lucky enough to have that small window of time right after my tour, before the sunset, to go observe it …  to get a new bird and watch it forage the way it was, to get some beautiful photos. It was great,” he says. 

By Monday, however, the bird was gone. Felperin says Sunday night brought strong southern winds, likely exactly what the bird was waiting for to take off. 

“I think it was just really trying to fuel up again to continue with the journey north,” he says. 

A quick pit stop in D.C. for a bite to eat, and the Wilson’s Phalarope is gone. In the reflecting pool, only the ducks remain.