Aug 2 Flatiron Hike

[Chris]

Randy and I hiked Flatiron today. It was the fourth time doing this hike and I am always surprised how steep the first part is! Despite the early start it was fairly quiet through the forested area bird-wise. We were surprised of how busy the trail was. The parking lot was quite full when we got down.

We did find 6 Ptarmigan, one female and five young, well above the lake and relatively close to the green tower.

Here is one of the photos I managed of the Ptarmigan.



Here is the list.

White-tailed Ptarmigan 6
Northern Flicker 1
Mountain Chickadee 3
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1
Horned Lark 2
Tree Swallow 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 6
Varied Thrush 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Pipit 5
Evening Grosbeak 2
Red Crossbill 2
Pine Siskin 1
Dark-eyed Junco 11
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Townsend's Warbler 1

[ed]

I’m glad you got one family of Ptarmigan! I think you got a pretty good list of birds. Sometimes I hear faint bird calls but can’t make them out and so don’t record them. I’m guessing I miss a few on account of that.

[Randy]

Awesome photo Chris! Had a super fun day! I'll get a few of my photos up hopefully in the next day or two.

[Gord]

Nice trip guys. Disappointing given all going on virus-wise that organizing a forum hike didn't pan out this year.

[Randy]

So I finally found some time to process my photos from the hike. I was pretty happy with a few of them.

Chris and I headed to the right (north?) of the lake and started scrambling up the rocks. This was where we found the ptarmigan 3 years ago. We split up a bit to optimize our chances and Chris was the first to spot a ptarmigan.

We observed it for a few minutes and it seemed to be enjoying a dust bath:




We counted 5 chicks with this hen and they were fun to watch scramble around:




We headed across the top of Flatiron, where we found an adult and immature horned lark. We also frustratingly witnessed an off-leash dog chase a ptarmigan. We suspect this was a male but it was too distant to confirm.

We headed back to the right (north?) side of the lake and relocated the ptarmigan family and spent a bit more time with them:







I knew I wanted to bring my big lens but I wasn't sure how the hike with it would be. Overall it was definitely slightly more laborious but I was really happy I brought it along and would definitely do so again. Certainly my legs need some time to recover though!

[Dave]

Great shots, Randy!

[nickinthegarden]

Excellent series of images I appreciated you sharing them. It is very unlikely that I will ever do such a hike so seeing someone else put the effort in is appreciated!

[neal]

Very nice photos. Cheers.