[Tweeters] New WA State White Tailed Ptarmigan High Count

[Nathan Wall]

I have been encouraged by another birder to share some exciting news with
the Tweeters community. On Saturday, October 15th my wife Melinda and I
happened upon a large flock of White-Tailed Ptarmigan while hiking at Mt.
Rainier National Park. After carefully counting the birds we arrived at a
count of 23 birds. This was a conservative count, however, and the actual
count was likely closer to 30 individuals. After 38 years this unexpected
sighting is now the new WTPT high count for Washington State! The previous
WTPT high count was set by Richard Cannings on September 14th, 1985 at Mt.
Baker, and was among the longest standing high count records in the state.
It's refreshing to know that these elegant birds appear to be thriving in
our protected lands.

For those interested our checklist and photos can be found on eBird at:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S152257610

Nathan Wall & Melinda Milner
Seattle, WA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20231020/665a65cc/attachment.html>