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.