I had three encounters with the rock ptarmigan in Iceland. The first one was similar to those morning encounters with the pheasant in Poland. While I was walking along the fencing of a marshy meadow, suddenly a male appeared from nowhere in front of me flying away in a rush. Initially I thought that he had a nest somewhere nearby, but I checked the surroundings and found no nest. During the second encounter several photos were taken. A male was sitting on a grassy elevation of a marshy meadow so that I could see him from a distance. Very slowly, dodging through the meadow I came closer to the bird. Dodging, as the meadow was marshy and intensely manured by cows and sheep, and I had to be careful in approaching the bird and step exclusively on elevated clumps of grass. Patience and determination pay off. After a few minutes the bird was sitting opposite me exactly the way I wanted to have it in the frame. It didn’t make any sounds, but was watching me closely. That’s how my first pictures of the rock ptarmigan were taken. I’m not going to describe my third encounter with this bird as it would be hard to believe, but would like to thank Johann and Orn for this amazing encounter. Many beautiful pictures were taken and what is important, I managed to photograph the female rock ptarmigan as well. The rock ptarmigan belongs to the galliformes family, it reaches 450 grams in weight, with a wingspan of up to 60 cm. It is estimated that its population in Iceland (2014) is 60 to 230 thousand couples.
Last minute news -06/2018 Iceland
All photos of the rock ptarmigan, a favorite delicacy of gyrfalcons, were taken accidentally, by the way. I think it is really common in Iceland, since when going for breakfast I noticed the bird on the top of the building. Uninteresting view, grooved roof, sky in the background, but good time and place for recording a bird's voice. I returned home to take the sound recording set and armed with it slowly approached the bird. It gave characteristic sounds that were recorded and the soundtrack goes to the gallery of this species. All in all it was also possible to take some interesting photos so the gallery reached the very good status.
Last minute news 07/2018 – Norway-Spitsbergen
Several contacts with a rock ptarmigan resulted in many good, interesting photos. Those photos taken in Iceland have been enriched by new ones, which significantly diversified the rock ptarmigan gallery on my site. Well, if only other species would pose in front of the lenses so eagerly. Within the distance of a few meters it was possible to photograph the preying bird.
pl
en
