Hoary Marmot

We have been fortunate to observe four different species of Marmot in our travels. Our first encounter with Marmots took place in Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado. I remember being very enthralled watching and listening to all the Yellow-bellied Marmots while hiking in the mountains. Unfortunately all the images I have of Yellow-bellied Marmots are on film.

Our next encounter was the Olympic Marmots in Olympic National Park Washington. Also recorded on film.

However we have encountered Hoary Marmots a fair number of times while hiking in the Canadian Rockies and I never get tired of their playfulness.

The Hoary Marmot has thick, silvery-gray fur on its head, shoulders and half of its back. It has reddish-brown fur on the back half of its back, its rump and on its long bushy tail.

It has black feet, a white patch of fur between its small, round eyes and white fur around its nose and mouth. It has small ears and long, curved claws on both its front and hind paws.

The hoary marmot can be found in Alaska south to Washington, northern Oregon and most of Montana and parts of Idaho.

Spruce Grouse

The Spruce Grouse is a dapper species of evergreen forests in northern and western North America. Males are brown-black with neat white spots and, during displays, a searing red eyebrow comb. Females are intricately scaled with brown, buff, and white.

These chickenlike birds eat mostly the needles of fir, spruce, and pine, an aromatic diet that makes them unpalatable to many hunters. Spruce Grouse are famous for their tameness around humans—they’re sometimes known as “fool hens”—but this works well for bird watchers hoping for good views. Cornell All About Birds

Ruffed Grouse

The dappled, grayish or reddish Ruffed Grouse is hard to see, but its “drumming on air” display is a fixture of many spring forests. It can come as a surprise to learn this distant sound, like an engine trying to start, comes from a bird at all.

This plump grouse has a cocky crest and a tail marked by a broad, dark band near the tip. Displaying males expose a rich black ruff of neck feathers, giving them their name.

We have certainly heard more Ruffed Grouse then seen. Their drumming sound is a definite crowd pleaser when heard out on the trail.

Rock Ptarmigan

The hardy Rock Ptarmigan nests as far north as there is land in the world. This chunky grouse wears two kinds of camouflage: it’s nearly all-white in the snowy winter and mottled brown in the summer.

Male Rock Ptarmigan stay white until they’ve finished courting females, and then intentionally dirty their plumage to hide from predators until they have molted into a safer (but less dashing) brown plumage. Their feathered feet help them to walk on deep snow and to dig snow burrows and tunnels for refuge from severe cold. Cornell All About Birds

Willow Ptarmigan

A master of camouflage, the Willow Ptarmigan is snowy white in winter and an intricate mix of reds and browns in summer. This rotund grouse of subarctic tundra lives year-round in areas where most bird species can survive only during the warmer months.

We observed these Ptarmigan while camping in Alaska.

Ptarmigan are well suited to brutally cold winters, using heavily feathered feet to walk over deep snow, and excavating snow burrows in which they take shelter from the elements. 

Perhaps because their camouflage is so good, wild ptarmigan often act tame and unafraid of people. Cornell All About Birds

White-tailed Ptarmigan

 

White-tailed Ptarmigan are small, tubby grouse, snow-white in winter and twig-brown in summer. They’re famous for being virtually invisible when they stand still against the windswept rocks, low shrubs, and snowbanks of their high-mountain habitat.

They nest above timberline in the alpine tundra of western mountains, and are the only birds in North America that spend their entire life cycle in these very high elevations.

We've encountered Ptarmigan quite a few times while hiking in the Rocky Mountains. Including finding three very young chicks that blended in extremely well with the mountain flora.

Their feathered feet and dense plumage enable them to walk on top of snow and even roost inside snowbanks.

Black-billed Magpie

 

Black-billed Magpies are another common bird to see when travelling out west. 

Black-billed Magpies are familiar and entertaining birds of western North America. They sit on fenceposts and road signs or flap across rangelands, their white wing patches flashing and their very long tails trailing behind them. This large, flashy relative of jays and crows is a social creature, gathering in numbers to feed at carrion. They’re also vocal birds and keep up a regular stream of raucous or querulous calls.

Historical records of the American West indicate that Black-billed Magpies have been associates of people for a long time. Magpies frequently followed hunting parties of Plains Indians and fed on leftovers from bison kills. On their expedition, Lewis and Clark reported magpies boldly entering their tents to steal food. Cornell All About Birds

Bighorn Sheep

 

One of the most common sightings while hiking in the Rocky Mountains are the Bighorn Sheep. It’s pretty cool encountering them while hiking along the snowline at higher elevations.

The bighorn sheep is the larger, wild relative of the domesticated sheep. Males are called "rams" and have long spiral horns, while females, called "ewes", have shorter, spike-like horns.

The coat is short, coarse and typically brown with white areas on the muzzle, the back of the legs and around the rump. Once a year, the sheep will shed its hair to reveal a new coat underneath.

The bighorn sheep's most important asset is its hoofs. The front hoofs are slightly larger than the hind. Each hoof has a hard rim on the outer edge with a soft, concave area in the middle, which gives the sheep excellent traction on steep, rocky terrain.

Bighorn sheep are social animals and live in groups of anywhere from 10 to 100 sheep. They generally live separately in groups of rams and ewes, but mingle in the fall during the mating season.

The bighorn sheep grazes on grasses and vegetation that is available in its rugged habitat on mountain slopes.

Rocky Mountain Goat

 

A cool mammal to encounter while hiking at elevations in the Rocky Mountains are the Rocky Mountain Goats.

Mountain goats are not true goats—but they are close relatives. They are more properly known as goat-antelopes.

These surefooted beasts inhabit many of North America's most spectacular alpine environments. They often appear at precipitous heights, from Alaska to the U.S. Rocky Mountains, showcasing climbing abilities that leave other animals, including most humans, far below.

Mountain goats have cloven hooves with two toes that spread wide to improve balance.

Rough pads on the bottom of each toe provide the grip of a natural climbing shoe.

Mountain goats are powerful but nimble and can jump nearly 12 feet in a single bound. National Geographic

Northern Flying Squirrel

 

We have also witnessed Northern Flying Squirrels in the western United States. They are found in coniferous and mixed forests across much of Canada and west to Utah in the United States.

Flying squirrels don’t fly like birds but rather glide from tree to tree. They are proficient gliders but uncoordinated walkers on the ground. They feed on a variety of plant material as well as tree sap, fungi, insects, carrion, bird eggs and nestlings.