Caper Revisited

I was very keen to get back out to (hopefully) see the male Capercaille again in good light and had a chance on Monday. It was -9C, blue skies and crisp air and the bird was cooperative – result! The bird frequents a picnic spot and when I got there I was dismayed to see that people had been there and fired up fireworks on New Years Eve and when I initially couldn’t find the bird I assumed that it had been scared off, never to return. I set about individually checking the large pine trees though and it only took a couple of minutes to find it and in fact it had only moved a couple of trees from where I saw it last week!

I had taken my tripod to take video but the legs were frozen solid and couldn’t be extended meaning I had to kneel in the snow to use it. The bird was a bit more active than last time and fed actively on a few occasions. It seems amazing that a diet of pine needles gives a bird of this size enough energy but it seems to expend the minimum amount of energy and is also well insulated so perhaps needs surprisingly little to survive. It also slept less and only showed the white eyelid on a couple of occasions and I also saw it close its “nictitating membrane” so confirming they are different things.

With a low sun I had the chance to try out my back-lit photography skills and think it is safe to conclude that there is still much room for improvement. I took hundreds and photos and videos so please bear with me if I have rather overdone the number of pictures in this post.

This bird seems very reliable and is one I am happy to guide to.

 

the winter diet consists almost entirely of pine (not spruce) needles

spot the Caper

this must be a young male as the red patch behind the eye is very small

its feathering is very thick which must provide good insulation

it made no noise when it opened its bill and it looked like it was yawning!

here we see the "nictitating membrane"

and here the white eyelid

here it is stretching both wings

look at the shadow of its head - looks like an eagle's head

northern grouse have feathered legs presumably to keep them warm walking in the snow

and then I attempted back lit

some snow flakes in the air gave me hope for a good image but it was better in my mind