Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Unknown age, Unknown sex - 1
Observation details
1st New York record - Originally discovered by Eugene Nichols on April 24th. Continuing in the same area, mostly foraging in a willow along the shoreline. Later the bird climbed down and sat quietly under a fallen-down tree. This is only the 3rd record for the Lower 48. Today myself and 8 fellow PA birders embarked on a weekend-long PSO field trip to the southern Lake Ontario shoreline, however our plans took a very unexpected turn when I noticed a forwarded email. It was from Drew, saying that there was a Willow Ptarmigan on Point Peninsula in Jefferson County reported by Eugene Nichols. Obviously we were all quite skeptical of the sighting, but the email from Jeff Bolsinger seemed convincing and, at the time, we were only about an hour from where the bird was seen. We picked up Drew at the Derby Hill Hawkwatch, tried to ignore the non-stop raptor flight overhead, and drove up to Point Peninsula to search for the ptarmigan. When we arrived Jim Tarolli and Dave Wheeler were there and quickly got us onto the ptarmigan – a beautiful bird in stunning, pure white winter plumage! We gathered around and watched as the plump, disoriented bird foraged for buds in a willow along the lakeshore seeming to ignore the growing number of gawking birders. A local homeowner driving past slowed down to ask what we were looking at, and after explaining, she offered to let me take her kayak out and around for closer, unobstructed photos of the bird! Within minutes I was in a kayak on the lake and less than 30 feet from the bird as it slowly climbed around pinching off buds to eat. What an incredible and insanely unanticipated lifer, and a great way to kick off our PSO trip! This is the first record of Willow Ptarmigan for New York (although there is one museum record from Lewis County), and one of only a handful of records for the Lower 48! Lower 48 records from the the past 100 years come only from the state of Maine in 1951, 1977, 1990, and 2000. Based on the range and appearance, this is the expected 'Willow' ssp as designated by eBird.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS REBEL T2i
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/1250 sec
- Dimensions
- 3456 pixels x 2304 pixels
- Original file size
- 2.36 MB