When you work for the federal government, you occasionally have opportunities to apply for “details.” If you are permanently stationed at a park and another park has a temporary staffing need, you can apply for it and work there for a few months. This is meant to help out a park as it rehires a new position. It also gives the person who gets the temporary job some career development—you can use it as a chance to work for a different type of park or to try out a different type of job.
Given all of the change in my life in the last few years, I saw an opportunity to work in Denali National Park and Preserve for the summer and thought, “YES! I want that please!” Part of it is a desire for change but also two birds I’ve always wanted to see are practically guarantees if you go at the right time of year: willow ptarmigan and my long-time nemesis, the spruce grouse. So I applied and then bada bing, bada boom I found myself in central Alaska in early May, living in a cabin in the park.
The morning after I arrived in Denali, I hit the Park Road in search of ptarmigan and places to ride my bike. I only went a few miles to where I hit subarctic tundra and there in the road was a male in all his ridiculous glory.
I pulled over and the ptarmigan immediately began singing me the love songs of his people. I was thrilled, elated, swearing with all the lifer joy a birder can feel. There was another male further away perched in a tree—I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR PTARMIGANS IN TREES! I made myself comfortable to listen and bask in this bird’s “song.” I ended up encountering willow ptarmigan on a regular basis in May and June along the Denali Park Road. One day I biked up to Sable Pass and was surrounded by males chasing each other. I wasn’t prepared for their even sillier chase call. I made a compilation video of their sounds. It’s so strange to be in land that is crazy majestic only to be serenaded by the likes of Looney Tunes.