Mary, From your statement of a "one was in the grass and one was on a log,"
I suspect you saw Blue Grouse, perhaps individuals still not quite full
grown. In my 25+ years of tramping the mountains I've never encountered
ptarmigan in trees except in winter. Not to say a p[tar,igan couldn't
descend into the trees early...just that I've never encountered one.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA


The first bird was in tall grass and the feature that struck me
>was the baring extended down the central portion of the tail with outer
>feathers black and lower, lateral aspects of abdomen white. The second
>bird was on a log and was a bit more showy. I could see the central
>feathers were black (but could this be positional?) and then it fanned.
>The entire rear view was black. The white tips reminded me of the "eyes"
>on a peacocks tail, they appeared to be on the lateral feather tips that
>were superimposed on the black fan. Beaks on both birds were short and
>stout, and both had small reddish/brown eye patches.