Aren’t Ptarmigan brilliant!?
So, a more complete round-up of February’s events so far will feature in a future post, but for now I wanted to show off some photos that I managed to get today. I’d planned an early start for a walk up into the Cairngorms and down to Loch A’an, and this meant that I caught the best of the clear morning as I climbed beyond 1000m. At this point I spotted Mr Ptarmigan tucked into the rocks. He called a couple of times while I sat watching him, and minutes later, as I headed further along the top, I realised that the reply must have come from a female that was sitting on top of a large boulder, in the sun.
As I say, I’ll post more information and news from this month when I get the time (hopefully later in the week)
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- Those of you who have never heard a Ptarmigan call before look it up, it’s a fantastic noise
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- Lagopus Muta – meaning hare(like)-foot mute. But they’re not mute, they croak! Who gives out these names?
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- When I loaded this onto my computer, I realised you can see him blinking
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- She was clearly not bothered as I walked within a few metres of her
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- A shot from the sunny side – demonstrating how unfortunate their ‘camouflage’ can be without snow.
Life since the office 
Those are gorgeous. I’ve never seen them in their winter finery!
Rob
27 February, 2012 at 8:20 pm
Really? That’s interesting as I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in their other plumage morph. I think his eyebrow gives him a very striking appearance, and she is a very pretty bird. I also saw, and heard, what looked distinctly like a wader fly out about 30m ahead of me as I descended – do you have any idea what it might be, up that high at this time of year? From a distance it looked and sounded a bit like a golden plover, but surely one wouldn’t be up there in February?
27 February, 2012 at 9:03 pm