This spruce grouse hen has been hanging around near our house for s while.  She was tame enough to let me walk within about 10 feet and then would not get up and fly, was hoping for some in flight pics.  She finally got into the woods more and took off. 

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to get the ptarmigan slam. 

 - The Ptarmigan Slam – The Ultimate Alaska Upland Challenge. This hunt is for the serious collector that wants to harvest all three species of ptarmigan in one trip. We have been working on this for the last three years and we are now confident in our locations and have experienced high rates of success.

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We had a great day ptarmigan hunting this past weekend.  Got into both Rock and Willow Ptarmigan.  I shot this with the new Canon 7D.  It is a cool camera, but does not track birds with focus during video mode.  But the HD is great.  Watch for more soon.  We leave on Monday for the quest of all three species if ptarmigan in 5 days!

Hope you enjoy -

We were lucky enough to host Larry Csonka and Smoky Joe for 5 days for the start of our duck season.  Larry came to film two episode of “North To Alaska” on Versus.  We did a Cast & Blast combo – Silver Salmon fishing, Ptarmigan Hunting, and Duck Hunting.  Larry has some amazing stories to tell in the duck blind.   I will let people know when the shows will air when I know.  Here are a few pictures from the filming.

Rock Ptarmigan

We always try to get out for the last day of ptarmigan here in Fairbanks.   My hope every year is to harvest a couple nice male willow ptarmigan.  This late in the season they have brown heads and white bodies.  I think it is their coolest color phase.  In Fairbanks the season stays open until April 30th, later than most places.  This gives a chance to harvest these birds in this plumage. 

 I generally get one each season, but had no luck this year.  We did get a great rock ptarmigan, which is more rare in Alaska.  They are much smaller and live above tree line.  Compared to willows living a lower elevations, general at the start of the tree line.  This was a great breeding male, he had huge eye combs.