Plate 191 – Willow Grous

In the afternoon of June 29, 1833, Ripley moored in Labrador’s Wapitiguan Harbor (see Plate 10) with John James Audubon aboard along with his fellow explorers George Shattuck Jr., Joseph Coolidge, and William Ingalls. On July 5, Shattuck, Coolidge, and Ingalls presented to Audubon a specimen that Audubon identified as the Willow grous. The bird is known today as the Willow ptarmigan. According to Cornell’s e-Bird system, to see a Willow ptarmigan in Maine today is virtually impossible. No more than one has ever been reported in the state. The last one was on May 29, 2024 (see eBird Checklist S179784875). The most that have been counted in all of North America is 1,500 (see eBird Checklist S32767198). Audubon spent most of the next seven days completing his drawing of the Willow ptarmigan parents and chicks and the mosses, lichen, Beach peas, Roseroot, and Labrador tea for Birds of America.