Dear Tweets,

After hearing the whimsical definitions of "jinx bird," now I am not too sure that I even have one. I think, though, that the White-tailed Ptarmigan will always go down in my personal birding annals as one of my all-time non-jinx birds. The first time I ever set foot in Washington, or indeed in the habitat for this species, I was trying to climb Mt. Rainier. That was back in 1986. Anyway, my partners pooped out halfway up the peak, and I walked back down in a rather bad mood. My mood improved shortly afterwards; right by the side of the trail was a family group of White-tailed Ptarmigan! When I told a ranger about it, he told me I had been very, very lucky--he was up and down the trails daily, and he would only see the ptarmigans a few times a year. It wasn't until ten or more years later that I managed to see my second and most recent one, up on Teebone Ridge in Skagit County.

Good birding,

Gary Bletsch


Gary Bletsch
Yanbu International School
PO Box 30039
Yanbu al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia
mail to: garybletsch at yahoo.com


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