Saturday, February 22, 2014

Trip to Mountains for White-tailed Ptarmigan

February 21, 2014

Richard Stevens:

Josh Cummings and I headed to the mountains at 5:00 am.  Temperatures were in the 20s; winds were 15-20 mph.

After looking for Rosy Finches in Summit County, eleven Barrow's Goldeneyes were relocated at the Blue River Water Treatment Plant.

Then we headed to Loveland Pass (Clear Creek).  It took less than an hour to find a White-tailed Ptarmigan walking the ridge (running east to west) just north of the large (and first) pullover south of Loveland Pass (along Highway 6).

We heard that another White-tailed Ptarmigan was found below the rocky ridge below the east side of Loveland Pass's Summit.  Without snowshoes, we decided to not try and relocate that bird.

I am a little bit worried as White-tailed Ptarmigan have been found now on six of my last trips to Loveland Pass.  All but one of those trips, Ptarmigan were found within 1.5 hours of arriving.  These percentages usually to not continue.

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