A few pairs of Snow Buntings breed on the tops of Scotland’s highest mountains, particularly where snow lies late in the corries. Insect life carried on the wind quickly becomes torpid once in contact with the snow beds providing an easy food source for the buntings.

Male Snow Bunting in summer plumage

Dotterels spend the short summer breeding on the expansive open mountain tops of the eastern and central Highlands.

Dotterel, female

Lapwings were once a common sight on the lower ground all over Scotland. In recent decades their numbers have declined to such an extent that they are now absent from much of their former range.

Dwarf Cornel, Cornus suecica

Wood Crane's-bill, Geranium sylvaticum