Hi Tweets,?

Bill?and I had a great hiking and birding trip to Paradise this weekend.?
Bird?diversity were low but the quality was great so a fun trip!?


Trails above 5800 ft were still?heavily covered with slushy snow. At times,
certain sections?were challenging.?? With this late blanket of?heavy snow, some
of the birds were forced to lower elevation to find food. First time, I had
rosyfinches?near?Myrtle Falls rather than above the Golden Gate or
Panaroma?Point area.??

Starting out well, we had two immature?PINE GROSBEAKS?near the Paradise Lodge.?
They were actively?feeding about?3 feet above our heads and then close?along the
trail.? Immature Gray Jays and Clark's Nutcracker were mixed in.? As we crossed
Myrtle Falls, we had several GRAY CROWNED ROSYFINCHES actively feeding along the
Golden Gate Trail and along the switchbacks.? By the end of the trip a dozen or
so were easily seen.?


Approaching the the top of the Skyline Trail, we found a black fox near a
possible den.? We proceeded towards Panaroma Point and?found a bonded pair of
WHITE TAILED PTARMIGANS.? We got to study the cooperative pair for quite a long
time, watching them feed and communicate to each other.?


The male was extremely late in his summer molt compared to the hen.?
Interestingly, the two males I saw

at Sunrise two weeks ago were 90% in summer plumage and still doing their
flutter flight and call display at the top of the ridges.??


I wonder if these birds molt according to environment rather than biological
stimuli such as amount of light per day, temperature, or hormones.? The one Dave
Hayden?photographed at Paradise on 7/10 (it was still 90% snow covered) bird is
about 50-60% white. The birds at Sunrise are almost in summer plumage because
the area was barely snow covered at top. ?It was really exposed and south
facing.? They are clever birds and will try to blend in and can change their
plumage in a week if need be to match the terrain.?? My bird even tried to roll
in dust to conceal himself.? I have seen this phenomenon with rock ptarmigans in
the Yukon early spring. Three, pure white birds that did not molt fast enough to
blend in so they rolled in dirt?as I?closely approached them.??

Videos to follow!?

Good birding,

Khanh Tran
ktbirding.com