Subject: [Tweeters] Belated thanks to Phil Pickering
Date: Dec 1 00:19:19 2005
From: Wayne C. Weber - contopus at telus.net


Birders,

It's a bit late, but I would like to express my sincere thanks to Phil
Pickering for posting the attached message on "Tweeters" last
September 9, detailing his sightings of WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN
and other interesting bird species in the Mount Baker area of
Whatcom County, WA. Phil, you may not have realized it, but
the Washington Ornithological Society was having its annual
meeting in Bellingham that weekend, with scheduled field trips
to the Mount Baker area on September 9, 10, and 11, with
ptarmigan as one of the key target species.

All 3 trips were planned to visit Ptarmigan Ridge, reached by a fairly
short hike from Artist Point at the end of the Mount Baker Highway.
Jim Duemmel, who was co-leader of the Friday (Sept. 9) field trip,
and who knows the Mount Baker area as well as anyone, assures me
that despite the name, ptarmigan are tough to locate on Ptarmigan
Ridge. In 6 or 7 previous visits, I had never seen one there.

I was on the Friday trip with Jim Duemmel, which encountered poor
weather but some fairly good birds (GOLDEN EAGLE, VESPER
SPARROW), but no ptarmigan. I was somewhat chagrined that
evening to read Phil's message and learn that he had seen ptarmigan
on top of Table Mountain, even closer to the Artist Point trailhead
than Ptarmigan Ridge! (Table Mountain is infrequently visited by
birders.)

The next morning, Ken Knittle, who was leading the Mount Baker field
trips on Saturday and Sunday (September 10 and 11), was duly informed
of Phil's report. The destination of the trip was changed, and I understand
from Ken that quite a few birders on both trips were able to see their
life WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN-- the same group of birds seen by Phil
on Table Mountain-- and several others saw their first ptarmigan for
Washington.

Alas, I was not among those who saw the Table Mountain birds.
On a subsequent visit about 4 days later, I found that the top of
Table Mountain was solidly fogged in for several hours, and
ptarmigan would have been hard to see at 50 feet. Another trip
on a gorgeous day about 3 weeks later with Brian Self produced some
fresh ptarmigan tracks, but no ptarmigan. However, ptarmigan
would only have been a "county bird" for me-- I have seen ptarmigan
on Mount Rainier, and on quite a few occasions in BC, Alberta, and
Montana.

The main point here is that Phil's apparently casual posting about his
ptarmigan sightings resulted in several birders getting a new species
for their life lists. A small amount of effort on Phil's part produced
a major reward for attendees at the WOS meeting! So if any of you
are thinking about posting some noteworthy sightings on
TWEETERS or OBOL, but not sure whether it is worth the effort,
please do so. You never know how many other birders may
be grateful that you made the effort to send a message!

And Phil, please keep posting results of your seawatches at
Boiler Bay on OBOL. I am constantly amazed at the unusual
species that are seen there, and at the huge numbers of some
common species seen during spring and fall movements. The
value of the accumulated data from years of Boiler Bay counts
can hardly be overstated.

Sincerely,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "Phillip Pickering" <philliplc at harborside.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:35 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Mt. Baker area 9/7-8


9/7 3-6 PM Top of Table Mt. -

Lots of Pipits but no large staged flocks
Family of 7 Ptarmigan
3 Red-tailed Hawks
1 Swainson's Hawk
3 Sharp-shinned

9/8 10:30 AM -2 PM Top of Hannegan Peak -

another family of 6 Ptarmigan
again lots of individual Pipits flying around but no large flocks
1 Lapland Longspur
4 Pine Grosbeaks
disappointingly only raptors seen were 2 Kestrels

also on the way up Hannegan a couple non-sooty (slate?) Fox
Sparrows along with tons of Juncos apparently staging, and dozens
of a mid-size butterfly along the trail with mostly blackish wings with
yellow trailing edge (Mourning Cloaks?)

p-tame-igan shots mixed from both places -

http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan001.jpg
http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan002.jpg
http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan003.jpg
http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan004.jpg
http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan005.jpg
http://www.harborside.com/~philliplc/ptarmigan006.jpg

Cheers,

Phil Pickering
philliplc at harborside.com