Ptarmigeddon

I had some time after a recent work trip to Colorado, and I used it to take on my arch enemy: the White-tailed Ptarmigan.

I lived in Colorado from the end of 05 to the end of 06, but never saw a ptarmigan. I took subsequent trips to the famous Medicine Bow Curve in Rocky Mountain NP at least once (eBird says once but I'm pretty sure it was twice), but didn't see a ptarmigan. I was going to see one this time.

I started with an early morning dash up Mt. Evans, just west of Denver. I got top the top -- an insane 14,130 feet -- just before sunrise. It was spectacular. There were two families of Mountain Goats just hanging out and a handful of Bighorn Sheep, each with cute youngsters that I would have tried to pet if not for the threat of taking an angry mother's horn in my spleen.

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Interview with Peter Vickery on Ptarmigan in Maine

I was messing around on the internet yesterday and came across the 1905 Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society.  It's pretty interesting reading, both because it's nice to see that people a century ago were just as passionate about birds as we are, and to compare what birds were being seen then and now (check out the writer on page 11 excitedly relating the increasing numbers of Mallards).  

I paused, though, at a sentence on page 3 discussing the taxidermy collection of Mr. Manly Hardy: "Among the Maine novelties is the specimen of Willow Ptarmigan taken at Kenduskeag..."

Iiiiinteresting, I thought.  I had thought before about ptarmigan in Maine and wondered whether they could, or had ever, been established in the state.  Researching a bit more, I discovered a quote from none other than John J. Audubon claiming that Theodore Lincoln of Dennisville (the father of Thomas Lincoln, for whom the Lincoln's Sparrow is named) had shot several ptarmigan in the state and knew where to find others.  

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