AK - grouse on the Denali Highway

More highlights from the recent Birdfinders tour of Alaska. We had excellent luck with grouse on the Denali Highway seeing Spruce Grouse in two different spots and a family of Willow Ptarmigan on the highway near Cantwell. 

Willow Ptarmigan chick - Denali Highway, Alaska. June 25th, 2017. 

Spruce Grouse - Denali Highway, Alaska. June 23rd, 2017. 

Spruce Grouse -  female, Denali Highway, Alaska. June 23rd, 2017. 

Willow Ptarmigan pair - Denali Highway, Alaska. June 25th, 2017. 

Willow Ptarmigan male - Denali Highway, Alaska. June 25th, 2017. 

 Willow Ptarmigan female - Denali Highway, Alaska. June 25th, 2017. 

VT - Spruce Grouse and Black-backed Woodpecker

 

Spruce Grouse - Moose Bog, North-east Kingdom, Vermont. October 12th, 2012. Our recent Birdfinders tour enjoyed close views of two Spruce Grouse foraging alongside the Moose Bog Trail. By no means easy to see, they blended in perfectly with their habitat. It was a superbly wild day with a cold front depositing squally showers of snow pellets around us for much of the day. However, we found plenty of shelter in the spruce/fir woods. Late in the day, on the same trail, we came across a male Black-backed Woodpecker which called constantly from the top of a spruce for at least five minutes in what seemed like unusually bold behavior for a such an elusive species. All images are digi-bin shots using a Nikon Coolpix L26 through Leica Ultravid 8 x 42 bins.