Bird of the Week – Just Kidding Around
Sometimes we forget that birds have their own agendas, which is usually the task of making more birds. This hatchling Willow Ptarmigan was just coming into his adult plumage in late June. The little guys are almost impossible to see on the tundra, but on the gravel bars you can sometimes spot the kids, with mom and pop doing their best to make you pay attention to the adults instead. For more bird photos, visit Frozen Feather Images.
Bird of the Week – Willow Ptarmigan
We’re still months from Spring, but it probably doesn’t violate Mudflats Rules to think about Spring. This male Willow Ptarmigan is in transition from winter to summer plumage. It’s an alpine bird, on the east end of the Denali Highway, where the spring comes a little later. The male trails the female’s molt by a few weeks, serving as a more obvious target for predators than the female, huddled on the eggs. For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Bird of the Week: Chicken Crosses the Road
The Alaska State Bird crosses the Denali Highway, west of Paxson. The reason the bird chose to cross is left to the speculation of the reader. The Willow Ptarmigan has been maligned recently. Some folks think that the species’ song – for a given definition of “song” – is so idiotic as to disqualify it from its current status. One birder went to far as to describe that song as “rejected Star Wars aliens, angrily standing outside the Mos Eisley cantina because their ID’s were rejected.” Harsh. Yet the Willow Ptarmigan survives and even prospers across a wide variety of harsh…