FWD: White-tailed Ptarmigan at Bald Mountain

[Tim Avery]

So I haven't seen anyone mention this but there have been two GOOD reports of White-tailed Ptarmigan at Bald Mountain 1 along the Mirror Lake Highway this week.  

These are the first ever reports from this locaton and notable because of how much easier it is to get here than any other locaton where they are found in Utah.

Here are the 2 checklists--I don't know if the details i neither provide info on exactly where the birds were, but they give an idea:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24811954

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24843391

Given the popularity of Bald Mountain, it's hard to imagine this species having been here for long without being noticed--9 checklists this summer, and 7 last.  It is also pretty far west of where DWR publicly says Ptarmigan occur--but by air less than 5 miles form the nearest previous report of the species.

Pretty cool find--and it would be an awesome goto location if they remain after this year.

Cheers

Tim

[Craig Provost]

Thanks to Tim for posting this, which I read around noon, and soon talked my wife, Dale, into going to find them! We were Blessed indeed.  We ran into Chris Purdy (excuse spelling please) at the Bald Mountain Trailhead at about 3:15 and she gave us her recent coordinates, and described the location on the right of the trial going uphill.  We took the coordinators and headed up! Some other hikers were coming down and verified the location. We found 5 of them nearby to her coordinates, just a little uphill and on the left side of the trail and up on the Bald mountain hillside.  Dale spotted them and got several photos.  Chris had reported them at 11,471 feet, and our GPS had us at 11,477, and the Ptarmigan were at our eye level and climbing uphill on the rocks as we watched.  Our coordinates were 40.694169 N; 110.906627W.  On the way down, we got a brief little wintry mix of precipitation!

Good Birding!

Craig (and Dale) Provost

We were at 

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