Ptarmigans

I happened to grab my camera on the way out the door to pick up Abigail on Wednesday. The ice on the trees had been incredible and I wanted to capture the way it looked. Of course, with the warm weather the ice had melted by the time I arrived at her pre-school. I was disappointed!

Then as we started to pull out of the parking lot 3 white birds fluttered out onto the driveway. Ptarmigans in their snow gear! And I had my camera! Most of my pictures turned out poor, but we had fun observing them.

For the detail oriented, I pick up Abigail at around 4 pm. You will notice that it's rather dark. Right now, by the time I have her bundled and in the car, the sun has gone down. We're getting about 4 1/2 hours of sunlight.

Abigail was entranced by the ptarmigans.

A car drove by and startled them off the road and into the snow and the tree next to us.

Pretty cool. I enjoyed watching Abigail almost as much as I enjoyed seeing the ptarmigans. They are rather shy and elusive, so it was a delight to see them with her.