White Ptarmigan

Every 11 years, there is an invasion of ptarmigan further south than usual. The winter 2010-11 is one of those. And this day, I spent an afternoon with a team of 7 Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).

I followed some steps for a bit more than an hour with my snowshoes. There was not a single sound in the forest.

Suddenly, I found them, 1, 2, 3, ... Be carefull when you find them, because you need to locate all of them before moving again, in order to avoid making one take off, which they would all follow.

I first faked leaving, coming back and leaving again, not looking at them, and finally stayed in place until they could imagine I am not a threat. An hour later, I felt accepted. I could move slowly in a parallele move to them, with a security distance to respect .

After a nap in the snow, they started to feed on some willow shrubs : their speciality.

This one picture was the only one where both the beak and the head were visible.

But a new problem is appearing for me because of my relatively new Canon 7D : when you get a beautiful behaviour in front of you, do you take photos or video ???

I got a beautiful video of the 7 feeding on the willow .

Décember 2010, Québec-Labrador border, Canada