WEST WAS DEFINITELY BEST

Late afternoon skies over Cairn Gorm and the Northern Corries

Poor light for ptarmigan photography

A ghostly looking Mountain Hare in poor visibility

Better luck with the Snow Bunting

I hour of clear skies at the end

Frozen trees again

It's been snowing and windy

A couple of snowy, windy  and cold days here in The Cairngorms. Fresh snow to Aviemore level over the last two days. Friday was forecast to be a dry day with some bright spells. Unfortunately the cloud was very reluctant to shift for most of the day. The base was way down low at 600m for much of daylight hours. Still at least the winds had died. Poor visibility all the way into the Northern Corries. Not a great day for wildlife photography but it is true that you are more likely to get some great views of nature when the weather conditions are poor ( they can't see you!). Plenty of ptarmigan on the hill. I spent over an hour up close and having my lunch with a pair who were very reluctant to move. Any wildlife that lives in such an harsh winter environment with scant food source will rarely want to spend it's energy moving about unless absolutely necessary. Further into the murk and plenty of Mountain Hare which were well camouflaged and looking ghost like in the monochrome world. By late afternoon the clouds did eventually part and the Snow Bunting had the last rays of light. Looked very much like the west had some fine weather today. Seems like they've been getting the lion share of blue bird days this winter.
Another band of low level snow to hit us tomorrow and then hopefully a dry day on Sunday.