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This mother white-tailed ptarmigan is fending off hikers who came close to her babies.

A couple of weeks ago, I came home to a distressed message on my answering machine. The voice on the other end exclaimed, “Kim! Where are the white-tailed ptarmigan?!” The distraught messenger is a friend of mine, someone who I consider one of the most knowledgeable and active birders in the Eagle Valley area. She went on to say that during her alpine hikes this summer she's seen plenty of pika but she hasn't seen a single ptarmigan and she wanted me to join her on a mission to find some.

FAIRBANKS — Nobody knows why, but Fairbanks residents are seeing an influx of ptarmigan in town this winter. “I see them all the time; they’re everywhere,” naturalist Mike Taras said of the snow-white birds that are usually found in the hills around town rather than in town. “Just driving along in the truck you can see their tracks and trails all over the side of the road,” said Taras, an education and outreach specialist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks.

Here are ptarmigan video clips, mostly in their winter plumage. Ptarmigan Video Clip

Here's a cool gallery of fall ptarmigans, before they go white for the winter. :cool: Cute Fall Ptarmigans

The bird is renowned for being shy A quail believed to have been extinct for nearly 80 years has been seen by a prominent ornithologist in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam. The Manipur Bush-Quail was seen earlier this month by Anwaruddin Choudhury, a wildlife specialist. Bird experts say that Mr Choudhury is highly respected and that they believe he saw the quail even though he was unable to photograph it. Experts say the sighting is one of the most exciting in India in recent years. Territory "This creature has almost literally returned from the dead," the Wildlife Trust...

Proof that bunnies are evil and Ptarmigan is not the only who thinks that. This is someone else's page about how evil bunnies are. Bunnies showed their true color in the Ptarmigan/Bunny War, which was epic in proportion, long, bloody, violent, and brutal.The Doom Bunny's Home Page

KING 5 TV reports that the last male of the Columbia pygmy rabbit species known to exist in captivity has died. There are two surviving females. Hopes are that cross breeding can rejuvenate the species.

Climate researchers are warning that wide areas of Northern Europe can get much colder winters if a strong, new 'El Niño' effect takes root in the Pacific Ocean. Norway can end up with Siberian conditions. Swiss researchers, backed by Norwegian colleagues, were due to unveil their findings this week. They based their work on research done on the period 1940-42, when Northern Europe experienced bitterly cold winters. During those winters, snow fell heavily in England, ships froze in ice along the usually ice-free coast of Norway and it was so cold in Oslo that schools were forced to close. "The...

Ptarmigan Photo GalleryCity Dwelling PtarmiganMan Hold Ptarmigan ChickAnother Cute Ptarmigan ChickPtarmigan In Winter Plumage