They do not bite, nor land on people. Eggs laid deep in the water become larvae that consume enormous quantities of algae and help cleanse the lake. The adult emerges from the pupae, rides an air bubble to the surface, then blows toward the shore by the billions, furnishing food for many of the millions of birds, especially shorebirds, that migrate and breed around the lake. After breeding mainly in Canada and the northwestern U.S., more than 500,000 birds, the majority of the world's adult population, gather on the waters of the lake. Rafts of these birds can sometimes be seen covering large sections of the lake, their heads bobbing like ping-pong balls as far as the eye can see.
Gigantic flocks undulate through the air, stretching and retracting like giant amoebae.
After a few short weeks on the lake, the Phalaropes will molt, fatten on brine flies and then vanish in August to fly 3,000 miles nonstop to winter in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. This acquisition of nearly six miles of Great Salt Lake shoreline was made possible through generous contributions from the Utah Wetlands Foundation, the George S. and Dolores Dori Eccles Foundation, Ruth Eleanor Bamberger and John Ernest Bamberger Foundation, Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation, Val A. Browning Charitable Foundation, The Gamble Foundation, Union Pacific Foundation, and First Interstate Bank. The Preserve is jointly managed with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. .