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Species: White-tailed Ptarmigan with Old Man of the Mountain (Hymenoxys grandiflora)
Habitat: Alpine tundra
Location: Jicarita Peak, New Mexico
Public Land: Carson National Forest, Pecos Wilderness
Description: Amid the shifting seasons of the alpine tundra, the white-tailed ptarmigan vanishes into its surroundings like a whispered secret. In summer, its mottled brown feathers mirror the lichen-covered rocks and patches of earth; in winter, it becomes a living snowflake, cloaked in pure white, nearly invisible against the frozen landscape. This bird wears the colors of survival—changing with the land’s mood in a quiet act of belonging. In its camouflage lies a poetry of adaptation, a dance of stillness and shape that honors the silence of high places.
I photographed this white-tailed ptarmigan just after it was released in its new habitat— the talus slope and meadow on Santa Barbara Ridge. Scientists are working to preserve a small population of ptarmigan that were translocated from Colorado to New Mexico. New Mexico is the southern extent of the white-tailed ptarmigan’s range where their population is uncertain and threatened by rapidly warming temperatures and changing community of forbs they depend on in their alpine habitat.
I photographed this story on assignment for the cover story of the Winter 2024 Issue of Audubon Magazine. For more on that read my Substack post.
Prints: Fine art print on acid free, 100% cotton, bright or warm white, textured surface, archival quality paper.
Species: White-tailed Ptarmigan with Old Man of the Mountain (Hymenoxys grandiflora)
Habitat: Alpine tundra
Location: Jicarita Peak, New Mexico
Public Land: Carson National Forest, Pecos Wilderness
Description: Amid the shifting seasons of the alpine tundra, the white-tailed ptarmigan vanishes into its surroundings like a whispered secret. In summer, its mottled brown feathers mirror the lichen-covered rocks and patches of earth; in winter, it becomes a living snowflake, cloaked in pure white, nearly invisible against the frozen landscape. This bird wears the colors of survival—changing with the land’s mood in a quiet act of belonging. In its camouflage lies a poetry of adaptation, a dance of stillness and shape that honors the silence of high places.
I photographed this white-tailed ptarmigan just after it was released in its new habitat— the talus slope and meadow on Santa Barbara Ridge. Scientists are working to preserve a small population of ptarmigan that were translocated from Colorado to New Mexico. New Mexico is the southern extent of the white-tailed ptarmigan’s range where their population is uncertain and threatened by rapidly warming temperatures and changing community of forbs they depend on in their alpine habitat.
I photographed this story on assignment for the cover story of the Winter 2024 Issue of Audubon Magazine. For more on that read my Substack post.
Prints: Fine art print on acid free, 100% cotton, bright or warm white, textured surface, archival quality paper.