[Leica] IMG: White-tailed Ptarmigan

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Doug Herr showed:
Subject: [Leica] IMG: White-tailed Ptarmigan

> http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/wtptar00.html
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/wtptar01.html
>
> Maneuvering for good lighting (and not falling over the cliff) I heard a 
> peeping sound nearby and after a few befuddled minutes looking for the 
> source I found a nearly-grown Ptarmigan chick at my feet.
>
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/wtptar02.html
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/wtptar03.html


Hi Doug,
 Too bad about not having the extra lenses. :-( Certainly when you were in 
the middle of a flock like that.

My only encounter with Ptarmigans was around Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island 
in the eastern arctic many many years ago. Interesting birds to say the 
least. There was still lots of snow around and as I recall the Eskimo 
hunters had quite a job finding the birds as many were still mainly in all 
white plummage. Others in a semi-state of switching over became the easy 
targets for the hunters. The birds were bagged and taken back to the village 
and divided up between the families for food.

Yours seen here are absolutely beautiful!  Sounds like you were more 
surprised than the birds? ;-)

cheers,
ted


> The White-tailed Ptarmigan is an alpine grouse which can be found at the 
> highest elevations in western North America.  Like other Ptarmigans, the 
> White-tailed Ptarmigan is a master of camouflage, resembling the rocky 
> alpine tundra in summer and changing to white in the winter.
>
> I found the Ptarmigans after many years of searching in several western 
> states.  In Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, US Highway 34 goes up 
> to an elevation of almost 12,000 ft where the Ptarmigans live.  One 
> location in particular is a good bet for finding Ptarmigans: Medicine Bow 
> curve, a bend in the road where the Medicine Bow mountain range is in full 
> view.  From the parking area one must hike a trail that eventually fades 
> away, down a slope to an area sheltered from the mountain winds, but not 
> so far that you fall over a cliff to the snow fields below.  Once you 
> reach this general area, luck is what you need to find the birds.  They 
> might be nearby but you'd never know it until you nearly step on it and it 
> walks away.
>
> As luck would have it, after a few hours of searching I found a pair of 
> Ptarmigans no more than 20' away as they were feeding on the alpine 
> vegetation.  As I watched, both birds completely vanished!  I was certain 
> they weren't hidden by terrain, I hadn't seen them fly away, I hadn't 
> glanced away even for a moment, but they vanished!  Scanning the area 
> carefully I noticed that two of the rocks were more rounded than the 
> others, almost as if they were worn down in a stream bed... but this was 
> at nearly 12,000 ft elevation, the nearest stream was thousands of feet 
> below.  It was when one of the rocks got up and resumed feeding that I 
> re-found the birds.
>
>
> I then began to see more rounded rocks, some merely resting and others 
> that had been feeding all along.  I had hit Ptarmigan Jackpot!  There were 
> at least 16 White-tailed Ptarmigans within 25 feet of where I was 
> standing.  With every step I had to watch carefully to be sure I wasn't 
> going to disturb a bird.  I then began kicking myself for packing light, 
> with only the R8/DMR and 280mm Telyt.  No extension tubes, no shorter 
> lens!  While laying on the tundra for a low camera angle several of the 
> Ptarmigans walked within a few inches of me, much too close to focus on.
>
> Despite being chilled to the bone from sub-freezing temperatures, the leg 
> cramps, the blasts of wind, the thin air that had me struggling to form a 
> complete sentence, this was almost paradise: alpine tundra, sun and clouds 
> playing peek-a-boo, an occasional Peregrine Falcon or Golden Eagle 
> overhead and an elk's bugling drifting up from the valley below, 
> surrounded by ptarmigans at arm's length.  Outdoor adventures rarely get 
> any better than this.
>
> Technical stuff: I had stuffed every DMR battery I own into an inside 
> pocket of my parka to keep them warm.  The R9/DMR was in sub-freezing 
> temperatures for about 4 hours and I expected to run out of battery power 
> long before filling the memory cards, but my precautions were unnecessary 
> because after a few hundred exposures and long after I had become numb 
> from the cold, the DMR showed that the original battery had plenty of 
> power remaining.  The only equipment failure was the QR clamp on the 
> monopod's tilt head which kept un-twisting from the head.  An upgraded QR 
> clamp is now in the mail.
>
> This, along with the adorable cashier at the Ft. Collins Whole Foods store 
> (I leave this to your imagination), was easily one of the most memorable 
> events of my 3-week road trip.  All comments welcome.
>
> Doug Herr
> Birdman of Sacramento
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com
>
>
>
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