by Matthew Cobb
It’s not only nightjars that are hard to spot. Here’s a photo of a ptarmigan on a Scottish mountainside, taken by my one-time student, Dr Kate Morgan, and posted on her Facebook page. I managed to find it after a couple of minutes (it’s not the highest resolution photo – I guess Kate took it with her phone). NB The ptarmigan could be in its winter plumage. Or not.
Is it in summer or winter plumage?
checkbox
“could be”.
Read more carefully in the morning, GB!
More coffee required.
Dammit!
Lol!! 🙂
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The pickie doesn’t enlarge for me. It’s not fair!
Fraid it is at full res. You can use some psychology (human) to work out where it might be…
I did the check the centre but cant spot it.
No ptarmigan (unless it’s in one of the valleys on the far side of the picture). No bloody nightjar either! Do I get any points for a rock and some snow?
I’ve been scanning the pic for 5 mins and I still can’t spot it!
Spot the ptarmigan!
Gesundheit.
Well, since ptarmigan, like other grouse, have a habit of sitting their ground until you’re right on top of them, then exploding away in a flurry of feathers and squawks, I’m looking in the close foreground.
There’s a suspicious patch of little black specks against the snow, about a quarter of the way up the picture near the midline ; that could be the eyes of a (winter-coated) ptarmigan. But the picture really isn’t up to being sure.
Now hold on there, gravelInspector-Aidan. It could be sitting its ground off in the distance, too!
Image quality here is a strike against us all. I think it is in summer plumage in between those rocks. 😉
Isn’t it whitish and right in the crease where the ground begins to rise??1. Please say I’m right. First damned bird I think I’ve found.
I think it’s in the lower third of the picture, right on the dissecting line and right of centre. Nestled amid the two big flat rocks and the little rocks.
Right side, at 4:00 o’clock
I don’t know. It looks earlier in the day to me. 😉
Going with the human psychology tip, I say it is dead center in the picture. There are a few things there that could be the ptarmigan.
If it’s missing does it become a ptarmigone? Sorry – someone had t say it 🙂
White plumage. Center of the picture from left to right, but about a third of the way up from the bottom. Maybe 🙂
draw diagonal line from bottom left to top right corners
first patch of snow above line on left
line also dissects three rocks left hand side
look left of third rock
maybe “Third Rock from the Sun”?
White plumage, 186 pixel from the left, 235 from the top.
Drat! I’d just developed a search image for nightjars, and now this. No ptarmigan for all I know.
Ayla would hit it with a rock, and put it in a ground oven.