Yesterday, just like every year, I helped out with the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (click here and here for posts about the last 2 counts). It's the day when all the local birder canvas the immediate area around town and count the birds and see how many different species they can record. It's always my job to climb a mountain and find a ptarmigan.
Year in year out I have usually been pretty good at this. Except last year I failed to find one and then yesterday I did too. So no ptarmigan for the last 2 years. The good thing is that another ptarmigan SWAT tasked with the same job as me did climb another mountain and see 2 ptarmigan. So the count got a ptarmigan - phew.
My totals for yesterday were:
3 miles hiked in 3 hours - 3 Ravens, 1 immature bald eagle, and a northern shrike.
That's it nothing else. This time of the year there just is not all that many birds in the high alpine.
I've also noticed that this year and last year I looked for ptarmigan on Pyramid. Whereas most years I have always climbed behind the North Sister. Perhaps next year I'll go back to climbing the North Sister.
Anyway, no ptarmigan, but it was not a day wasted. I found some deep powder for skiing and the light and clouds were spectacular. I also explored areas looking for ptarmigan where I do not usually go. Last year I found deep powder in the same places too. Maybe I'll to explore these places more when I am not looking for ptarmigan.
Patrick
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| Only 'interesting' bird I saw - a 'butcher bird' (northern shrike) |
I hiked up the back side of North Sister - very windy. No ptarmigan.
ReplyDeleteThat's where I usually go - I gather Gregg got 2 but had almost given up
ReplyDelete