GOOD WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY

Male ptarmigan

Coire an Lochain 

A sleepy Mountain Hare

Northern Coire's 

Afternoon showers 

Female ptarmigan

More Hare's in the sun

The lost compass, still in the same spot

It was a good day for wildlife photography in The Northern Cairngorms. Sunny spells, light winds and good visibility. The overnight cold temperatures had firmed up the snow pack nicely. Quite solid at lower altitudes so made for lovely walking with no need for crampons on easy angled terrain. There are still big areas of snow below 900m to link up to the full snow cover above this altitude. Plenty of ski tourers out again but the Northern Coire's were quiet and great for some wildlife watching. The ptarmigan were quite vocal, croaking away everywhere and the Mountain Hare were lazing about in the sun. I found the compass which was dropped by one of my client's in January. It is quite amazing that it was lying exactly were he dropped it with over two months of wild blizzards and gale force winds. My wife says it's amazing how I can navigate and find a small piece of plastic in the vast Cairngorm landscape but I can't find a cleaning cloth in one of our cupboard's in the house :) .Another quiet, sunny day tomorrow before some fresh snow showers in the run up to Easter. If you're thinking of shorts and T-shirt mountain walking this Easter holidays, best think again! It is full on winter conditions across much of The Highlands. We still have at least 4 weeks of winter to go. Despite it feeling like Spring i the glens and the clocks going forward.  Looking forward to some nice long winter days :)