Highland Mary Lakes, July 4th weekend

[ilanarama]

Here, as promised, is the trip report from our long weekend of backpacking, with about a dozen pictures. Ok, it's not actually here, it's on my website, so here's a little thumbnail to tempt you to go look:

Comments

Re: different continent, similar fauna

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Some possibilities occur:

• The mountain on which I saw the ptarmigan sees a fair amount of human traffic, so the birds could be a little more used to inquisitive and/or unobservant primates.
  
• Perhaps the lower altitude means an earlier mating season here: if the chick is old enough to run away, FerociousPtarmiganAssault(tm) need not be invoked...
  
• It may be a case of two species, same name. From the photo in one of your other responses, it's hard to tell (nice pic, btw): her markings are slightly different, but some regional variation is normal. I'll post a substandard photo of my own later, so you can compare...