snow buntings at sea level

Sat, Feb 27, 2010

Yesterday, I slammed the brakes on and reversed up the road as I caught sight of a flock of little white birds. Much whiter than anything around at the moment and I knew straight away what they were. Snow Buntings! They’re ten a penny in gardens in Iceland but in this country I’ve only ever seem them on the summits, like this little fella on Cairngorm five years ago:

Fantastic little birds and the ones I’ve met on Cairngorm and on the Fisherfield summits were tame to the point of friendly. The Gaelic for Snow Bunting is Eun an t-Sneachda (the bird of the snow) but I prefer the other version, Gealag an t-Sneachda. Geal means white and ag is the feminine form of the diminutive so Gealag means the little white one and Gealag an t-Sneachda means The Little White One of the Snow. Beautiful name.

You can see more of the Snow Bunting on Cairngorm here.