Searching

Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Description

The snow bunting has eluded me every time I have headed up the Cairngorms in search of ptarmigan in winter.  So on this occasion I took some bird food with me and thankfully it paid off.

Snow Buntings are sparrow-sized birds which breed around the Arctic from Scandinavia to Canada, but migrate to the UK in the winter. There are also some resident Snow Buntings in the UK, which breed in Scotland. Snow Buntings build their nests in rock crevices on bare mountain slopes or rocky shores and lay four to six eggs.