Bird of the Month: Ptarmigan
Like ermine stoats and the blue or mountain hare, ptarmigan (Lagopus millaisi) can turn white too early and become conspicuous targets. Hence Tennyson’s lines in The Last Tournament: The ptarmigan that whitens ere his hour Woos his own end. The name comes from the Gaelic tarmachan, or ‘croaker’. It was first printed at the end of the 16th century in a Scotch text. The added ‘p’ appeared in Sir Robert Sibbald’s Scotia Illustrata (1684), a pseudo-scholarly attempt to make the word look ancient Greek, which has stuck.
Ptarmigan, now confined to the Highlands, live exclusively above 2,000 feet. The bird is known as the rock ptarmigan ( Lagopus mutus) in similar terrains round the northern hemisphere as far south as the Pyrenees. Our smaller and, in autumn, greyer bird is classified as a separate subspecies – millaisi, in honour of John Guille Millais, bird artist and sporting naturalist, fourth son of Sir John Millais, 1st Bt, Pre-raphaelite and President of the Royal Academy.
Charles St John, in Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands (1919), marvelled that ptarmigan could survive ‘on the barren heights’. In fact, the shoots, leaves and berries of the Vaccinium (cowberry, bilberry) and Empetrum (crowberry) groups, as well as ling, least willow and insects for the chicks, provide ample food. In snow, they burrow for shelter as well as food, insulated by denser plumage and thick-feathered feet.
St John noted that, on fine days, the birds emerge ‘from among the scattered stones’ and welcome an intruder as a flock of hens might. But if it is ‘windy and rainy’, they ‘are frequently shy and wild. When disturbed, instead of running about like tame chickens, they fly rapidly off to some distance, either round the shoulder of the mountain, or by crossing some precipitous and rocky ravine.’
Television has shown them happily going about their business at the Aviemore ski resort, sometimes just outside the Ptarmigan Restaurant.
Hen ptarmigan moult three times a year; cocks four. Summer hens are a boldly marked, pale brown, cocks a richer hue and crimson-combed like red grouse; both retain white bellies and wings. On mountain tops, round ptarmigan Grunted from burrows in the air And with a flash of red began Plumply to whirr to here from there. Norman Maccaig, Always first morning
Disturbing ptarmigan has been described by Francesca Greenoak ( British Birds, 1997) as seeing ‘running stones’. This is because of their exceptional camouflage.
Like other game birds, they will freeze at the approach of danger, and a sitting hen can shield her clutch till stepped on.
Seton Gordon ( The Charm of the Hills, 1930) told of Hills, a stalker taking lunch, who discovered he had been unknowingly dropping crumbs from his ‘piece’ on the back of a sitting ptarmigan. He also named the sight of a covey turned gold by evening sunlight as the most beautiful vision he had ever witnessed in the Highlands.
The 2020 Bird of the Month calendar is available from www.carryakroyd.co.uk