[Leica] IMG: White-tailed Ptarmigan

[images at comporium.net (Tina Manley)]

Fantastic photos!  I'm shivering after reading your account and it's 85
degrees here!!

Tina

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 4:56 PM, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at 
earthlink.net>wrote:

> 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.
>
> 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
>
> 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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>
>


-- 
Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com