Ed Swan writes:
(snip)
> Are ptarmigan possible at
>ski areas like Grouse Mtn., Cypress Bowl, or Mt. Seymour and what habitat
>area do you look in?

Ed, the short answer is yes, possible/probable at Cypress Bowl and Mt.
Seymour for sure and likely at Grouse from late October/early November on (I
tried to work out an average arrival date for them, but their arrival seems
keyed more to the timing of the first big dump of snow in the central
Interior of the province). To what? No one knows: there's never been enough
birders up there in late winter or early spring.

Most sightings seem to have been at Mt. Seymour, at the base of Second Pump
Peak, midway between First Pump Peak and Mt. Seymour. Winter habitat is
below treeline, particularly during heavy snow, in gullies and on shrubby
hillsides, the edges of powerline rights-of-way. Best bet is to look for
ptarmigan ptracks (note that there's also Blue Grouse sharing the same
habitat): the birds potter about atop the snow, feeding on willow and alder
buds and twigs accessible when the snow becomes deep enough. I don't thin
any of the Vancouver BC sightings have been of birds any significant
distance away from cover. Good luck. A ptarmigan can be quite hard to see
against snow unless it tweaks your peripheral vision, or you can see its shadow.

There's not a lot of records from Vancouver BC, but this is a case of the
distribution of the bird corresponding almost exactly to the distribution of
the birders. You can drive up quite close to the Mt. Seymour sites. While
the area almost certainly get a regular migration on the local peaks, we
didn't know of it until a few years ago when a couple of newcomers to the
area found some Rock Ptarmigan (ROPT) up at Seymour; the rest of us were
down at sea level looking for incoming Gyrfalcon and Snowy Owls as we always
did at that time of year.

Once the thundering herd (including myself) went up there to get these birds
on life- and area lists, it discovered the presence of White-tailed
Ptarmigan (WTPT) as well, and regular migrations south- and northbound of
Pine Grosbeak and Rosy Finches (all of which we locals considered great
rarities, up to the newcomers' happy discovery. Which these species were,
and are--at sea level). Now Mt. Seymour is a regular shrine on the local
thundering-herd seasonal pilgrimage.


Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada When I found out that seven of my years
(604) 668-5073 vx was only one of theirs,
(604) 668-5028 fx I started biting absolutely everything.
mprice at mindlink.net
michael.price at istar.ca -Max Carlson (Ron Carlson's dog)