function photo(i,c,m,q,d,j,h,o,p,a,l,f,k,b,r,n,g,e){this.id=i;this.galleries_id=c;this.photo_ref=m;this.section_code=q;this.src=d;this.width=j;this.height=h;this.caption=o;this.home=p;this.gallery=a;this.description=l;this.takendate=f;this.photographer=k;this.location=b;this.item_price=r;this.purchase_instruction=n;this.payment_groups_id=g;this.server_id=e;this.src=getServerPath(this.server_id)+"/"+this.src}function gallery(e,c,d,b,a){this.id=e;this.featured_images=c;this.title=d;this.section_code=b;this.photoIDs=a}var backgrounds=new Object();backgrounds[1865454]=new photo(1865454,"88321","","gallery","Gorms-11.jpg",580,385,"Bunting",1,0,"A female snow bunting, <em>Plectrophenax nivalis</em>, sheltering from the wind behind a stone encrusted with ice feathers on the Cairngorm plateau. <br>\r\nPhotographed in November at around 1100 metres at first light.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nThe snow bunting is a truly Arctic species, with a circumpolar distribution and reaching further north than any other bird, even living on nunataks in the Greenland ice sheet.<br>\r\nEven these hardy birds stream south before the Arctic winter sets in though.<br>\r\nAn estimated 9000 - 11,500 birds spend the winter in the British Isles, including the Cairngorms, where small ragged flocks trip around the plateau, or scavenge for crumbs around ski centre car parks. <br>\r\n<br>\r\nA handful of snow buntings remain to breed each year among the cliffs and screes of the Cairngorms' highest summits, where they are at the southern limit of their breeding range in what is, effectively, a small piece of the Arctic slipped to the south.<br>\r\nPerhaps unsurprisingly, it has been found that more birds stay to breed after late snowy winters.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nTwo races of snow bunting occur in Britain, the main one in winter being <em>P.n.nivalis</em> like this one,  from Scandinavia and Greenland, which has a white rump and is strictly migratory. <br>\r\nThe other race is the dark-rumped <em>P.n.insulae</em>, which lives in Iceland and is largely sedentary.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nBoth races breed in the Cairngorms, the proportion varying from year to year.<br>\r\nThere are between 50 and 100 breeding pairs of snow buntings in Scotland, about half of these in the Cairngorms, the rest scattered through the north and west Highlands, including Ben Nevis. <br>\r\nThe population fluctuates but shows no clear trend.<br>\r\n","","","Highland Region, Scotland.","","","",18);