Be Very Very Quiet . . . We're Hunting Ptarmigan.

Hi, Everyone!

With less than two weeks to go here in Alaska, I thought I would try a new activity I had never done before.  (Now that Tammy has left I can talk in the first person!)  Given that this is the land of great wild animals, I decided to give hunting a try.  I had never shot a gun and thought it would be a cool, "Alaska" experience.  And thanks to one of my fellow clerks, Peter, this became a reality.

We hiked up to Mt. Baldy after work.  This is apparently great hunting grounds.  It is also the place I proposed to Tammy, if you'll remember.  Here's what it looked like today:

 We decide to go after ptarmigan.  These are little birds that closely resemble chickens.  In fact, there is a town in Alaska named "chicken" simply because the residents didn't know how to spell ptarmigan when they first settled there.  Also, for the record, ptarmigan are the state bird of Alaska.  Here's a picture of one (post-shooting):

I don't have a license, or know how to shoot, so I left the bird hunting to Peter and his friend, Jeff.  I just came along for the ride.

We started off walking through alders trying to push out the birds.  Here we are pushing our way through bushes:

After a little while of walking around, we stumbled across a whole bunch of these guys.  They just sprang for the bushes, and Peter and Jeff took aim.  Then, BANG!

 In the end, the two of them got 6 ptarmigan.  This will definitely make for a filling dinner sometime this week. And it apparently will taste like chicken . . . literally.  (P.S. the next photo is kind of gross, so just scroll through if you don't like blood . . .)

Anyway, my first hunting outing was a great success!  I'm looking forward to trying some of the birds Peter and Jeff shot.

There will be more adventures in the next two weeks; hopefully I'll be ok at maintaining the blog even though Tammy is not here anymore.  Talk to you all soon!