For a week so Roseberry summit has been home to a handful of Snowflakes or Snow buntings

A dreich day, “Roseberrye Toppinge weares a cappe“, so a photo from yesterday.

For a week so Roseberry summit has been home to a handful of Snowflakes or Snow buntings, to use their more common name. Canny little birds which seem to find pleasure in teasing you — flying off a couple of yards or so then swirling around you before settling down again, just keeping their distance.

This one is probably a young male. Viewed from behind its sombre brown dominates, before exploding into a flurry of white in flight.

There are about 100 pairs resident in the UK, mostly on the high mountain tops of the Cairngorms. In winter, these are supplemented by visitors from their breeding grounds on the high tundra of Iceland and Scandinavia.

The ornithologist Desmond Nethersole-Thompson described the snow bunting as possibly the most romantic and elusive bird in the British Isles¹Nethersole-Thompson, Desmond. Snow Bunting. Oliver & Boyd. 1966.. In the mid 20th-century, he spent, over a period of several years, no fewer than 263 nights on the Cairngorm tops, studying the habits and life of the bird to get first-hand material for his book²‘North writer’s saga of the Snow Bunting.’ | Aberdeen Press and Journal | Tuesday 25 October 1966 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19661025/035/0004> [accessed 20 October 2022]..

One correspondant to The Scotsman in 1912 wrote that “they used to be considered a delicate article for human consumpt, and were often killed in numbers during snowstorms for edible purposes” and that “the snow bunting is a very toothsome morsel when cooked“³‘The Snow Bunting as a British Bird’. | The Scotsman | Saturday 20 January 1912 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/19120120/068/0011> [accessed 20 October 2022]..

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  Nethersole-Thompson, Desmond. Snow Bunting. Oliver & Boyd. 1966.
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  ‘North writer’s saga of the Snow Bunting.’ | Aberdeen Press and Journal | Tuesday 25 October 1966 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19661025/035/0004> [accessed 20 October 2022].
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  ‘The Snow Bunting as a British Bird’. | The Scotsman | Saturday 20 January 1912 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/19120120/068/0011> [accessed 20 October 2022].