piranga_ludoviciana
Birding the World
2 friends and I spent yesterday above the tree line in the High Uintas in northeast Utah on Leidy Peak. The goal of the hike was to see if we could find some White-tailed Ptarmigan. This was my 7th time hiking here looking for these birds. In the previous trips I had seen them once, heard them once, but never had a good chance for photos. We had a little better luck this year and found a pair about 100 yards below the summit. They were super cooperative and I spent well over 30 minutes taking pictures before we topped the peak, and made our way down the other side.
A bunch more shots of the Ptarmigan:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1175
Between 3 of us hiking different routes up, across, down, and back a combined 15 miles we didn't see any other ptarmigan--and had we taken different routes up the mountain we very well could have missed the 2 we did see.
On the hike down I had a Black Rosy-Finch almost land on me...
More shots of that bird can be seen here:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1176
A bunch more shots of the Ptarmigan:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1175
Between 3 of us hiking different routes up, across, down, and back a combined 15 miles we didn't see any other ptarmigan--and had we taken different routes up the mountain we very well could have missed the 2 we did see.
On the hike down I had a Black Rosy-Finch almost land on me...
More shots of that bird can be seen here:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1176
