Mary Poss wrote:

> The sparrow had a small rusty cap, overall grey head with slite
>rusty eye streak, yellow bill and distinct white wing bar. No streaking on
>breast. I initially thought that it was a chippie but when I finally got a
>good look at it and obviously wasn't. Anything else that this could be? I
>certainly wouldn't expect it in this environment.

I'm not so surprised at a tree sparrow up there, but it seems like an
unusually early date to me.

> I was also somewhat baffled by the "ptarmigan". Of the 2 birds
>that I saw clearly one had baring all the way down the central tail
>feathers, the other (the one that fanned its tail) had lateral black
>feathers. The former bird had white wings patches low over the abdomen.
>The beak was quite short on these birds and both had dull reddish, small
>eye patches that were somewhat caudally displaced. These seem to have many
>characteristics of rock ptarmigan but not all. So... the questions. Can
>grouse and ptarmigan hybridize? Would ptarmigan be turning white by now?
>(The snowshoe hare that I saw on this trip had not started to turn yet).

White-tailed Ptarmigan start to change color in September, I think, but
they wouldn't be very far along in that molt by now.

Grouse and ptarmigan might be able to hybridize, but I wouldn't worry much
about dealing with that that until you'd seen hundreds of grouse and
ptarmigan and knew exactly what each species looked like. People often
have arguments about hybrid origins even when they have specimens in the
hand!

You described the central tail feathers of one bird and the outer of the
other. Does that mean you didn't see the outer feathers of the first bird
or the central feathers of the second? Did you see enough of a spread tail
that there's no question that the feathers were black? Can you say
anything more about the "white tips?" You still don't have me quite
convinced that you saw a Rock or Willow Ptarmigan, but it's certainly not
an impossibility, as both species are known from fairly far south in
British Columbia. Such a record will need abundant documentation,
accompanied by photos, as those two species can be quite difficult to
distinguish. Flush them if you see them again; that's the best way to see
the white wings that tell you they're ptarmigan and either white or black
tail.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416