Sitting with Ptarmigan

I have been surveying ptarmigan in the Cairngorms over the past week. Now is a good time to count them as the pairs are all formed, set in their territories, and the females are laying up. This is when they are most conspicuous, well they are never conspicuous, but less likely to not be seen. The males, above, sit on prominent rocks and the females spend much of the day feeding. I found this confiding pair, so I sat about 10 m from them as they went about their business.

They have now moulted out of their white winter plumage, the females are mottled brown and grey, and the males are mostly grey. Although there was fresh snow every day last week, they spent their time feeding on snow-free clumps of herbage and rested amongst rocks. So their colouring didn't expose them to predators. Nor to me except after watching for movement for a long time - about half an hour. They had probably been watching me and decided that I was no threat before they began moving, it was only then that I saw them.

The males spend most of their time watching over their hens as they feed. Watching for predators and chasing away rival males. There were males about a hundred metres either side of this pair, one had one hen and the other had two.

The only food plants not covered by snow were up on wind-swept ridges and the most abundant food in such places is crowberry, Empetrum nigrum. The hen picked the developing leaf and flower buds from the very tips of the shoots.

It's not only food that the hens need to make eggs. They also need water as they might lay 7-10 eggs, which is a lot of water volume, and the most readily available supply was the snow lying all around. So this hen was eating snow.

After about twenty minutes, the hen stopped eating and clambered up into some rocks to rest. Always closely followed by the male. She was heavy at the rear, a sign that she had eggs forming inside her.

The pair settled down to rest, the hen to digest her meal, and the cock to sit alert on top of a nearby rock. His pie-bald spring plumage perfectly matching the rock and snow landscape.

Carn Ban Mor 
(Big white stony hilltop)

Time for a post on a wildplace.

My first week in Scotland 2019 has been a wild one with the wind constantly blowing from the north and bringing lots of snow to the mountains. Much of the wildlife was lying low, so I went for a walk up onto the hills, just for a look around. My route went into Glen Feshie, then up the hill track to Carn Ban Mor. The path goes up from Achlean and follows the ridge above the Allt Fhearnagan. The cascades, above and below, are where the burn runs through a stand of old pine woodland at Badan Mosach.

The view from half-way up the falls. All was quiet as snow was falling. There was only the sound of the water and soft phat of snowflakes melting onto the branches.

Near the summit ridge at c 1000m with the snowline lying about 700m.

When I reached the summit ridge, this was the view: the broad plateau of Braeriach and Einich Cairn completely covered with fresh snow, which would have been lying on top of extensive old snowbeds from the winter.

The summit cairn of Carn Ban Mor was the only feature on the ridge. All else was under the snow.

One long white silky landscape.

There were high clouds above, but the snow-filled clouds were mostly below or blowing across the ridge, obliterating the view now and then. That was when it all felt very very wild. Lovely.

I had a look for ptarmigan in the rocky flanks of the ridge, but didn't see any birds or signs of them. So I simply sat in the snow for a while and grabbed glimpses of the glen when the cloud broke, stalling the moment when I knew I had to go back down.

It's good to go wild now and then, and I'm so glad I did. Another wonderful day in the hills.

First spring post for 2019

The tree and flower buds are opening in north-east Scotland now, like these Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus leaf buds.

The lovely soft Scottish light shows the subtle tones and colours of the buds.

Down at ground level the Bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta are opening and the ferns unfurling.

It's good to take a ground-level view, that of the birds like the Robins Erithacus rubecula who were collecting insects to feed their newly-hatched young.

One pair of Robins in this wood had hidden their nest beneath this tussock of old dried grass from last year.

Their eggs hadn't hatched yet, the neighbouring pairs to either side had though. The chicks were only two days old.

The birds with young had five chicks, this nest contained six eggs. Five is the most common clutch size in north-east Scotland. perhaps there had been plenty insects for food when the eggs were laid two weeks ago. It was warm and sunny then, today was cold with showers.

Last autumn post for 2019

I was clambering up Mt Majura in north Canberra the other day and came eye to eye with these seed pods lying on top of a ridge.

The autumn gold of the seeds inside a Kurrajong seed pod. Old dry and blackened pods lie around.

The ground in the grove was littered with seed pods, some old some new.

The stand of Kurrajong trees were up on a ridge. Their straight stems and lush green foliage make them instantly recognisable. The ground cover of grasses and herbs was close-cropped by Eastern Grey Kangaroos.

There was a good crop of seed pods on most of the trees, but I don't know what animals eat them. Any suggestions?

The glistening green pods under a bright blue sky, what a lovely tree.

One last last crisp autumn view over Canberra.

And one final butterfly for the season in Canberra, an Amethyst Hairstreak Jalmenus icilius basking on a track on a hillside today. Other species seen flying today were Meadow Argus and Cabbage White.

It's Spring for me next week.

Autumn - eagle display

Autumn in Canberra is just getting brighter and better every day at the moment. Crisp clear light with far away views, like this one from Black Mountain across the city and lake to the distant hills.

And the Wedge-tailed Eagles are making the best of the weather for their autumn displays. Like this male over Mount Ainslie on the edge of the city.

He was with his partner, but no youngster from last year as this pair never bred. Although I have seen other pairs still with their last year's offspring, it won't be long til they move on and find their own way in life. For all this recent display activity is part of the eagles' bonding and territorial claim for the upcoming breeding season - they will lay eggs in July here in Canberra.

This pair were soaring over a wooded ridge, but there wasn't much wind so the display was a bit casual. The female was circling quite low while the male rose up, then as he stalled to a stop he would tilt over into a dive.

He tucked his wings in and charged on down, always in perfect control even when so tightly folded.

When he saw fit, he simply and easily turned up out of the dive and opened his wings to catch the wind, then he climbed back up to a high point and repeated several times. As it was quite a still day, the pair eventually dropped to perch in a tree. The best displays are done in breezy conditions.