Welcome back! This week’s Sunday edition tells the story of the ptarmigan. They are one tough bird.
Last winter we had an explosion of ptarmigan. They were everywhere and it seemed as though you couldn’t walk or drive anywhere without finding a cluster of these little snowballs. That’s why it was so odd to come across this one by itself. The first time I encountered it it was happily munching on willow buds along the edge of a road. It waddled along the top of a windrow and I noticed it was missing a bunch of tail feathers. I figured that something must have got a mouthful but somehow this little grouse got away.
Random Fact: Did you know that ptarmigan hunker down in snowbanks to stay warm and will sometimes fly straight into them so they won’t leave tracks for a predator to follow?
SO, a couple days later I’m down that same stretch of road and I see that chubby three tail-feathered ptarmigan along the windrow again. Only this time there’s something different about it. Believe it or not but my eyes aren’t that great, I’m thinking what’s this bird got under her chin? I used my long lens to get a better look and was kind of surprised at the results.
It looks like the ptarmigan had a close encounter with a predator of some sort. It could have been a dog, or a fox, or a short-sighted owl even. I was in awe that the bird I thought was so delicate is actually so hard core! The poor thing looked like it nearly had it’s head ripped off but there it was just tootling along like nothing was wrong. The blood at its neck was frozen because it was twenty below but it kept trying to groom and then I thought maybe it slashed it’s own neck with those dang claws!
It was a week before I had a chance to look for this bird again but I never did see it after that day. I figured it fed another creature trying to survive winter but you never know, I never found any feathers either.