THE NC 500 - NOT!

The Isle of Neave

Heading North on Tuesday

Curlewe

North Coast

Everyone loves a Robin

Wigeon

Female Bullfinch

Redshank

Greylagg Geese

I had a very pleasant couple of days up north, staying with friends Nigel & Andi who own the Borgie Lodge Hotel. A fabulous spot, away from it all in Sutherland on the North coast. It is on the NC500 race track. You need to get out of your car and explore the area to truly appreciate this fabulous place. The coastline has secluded and deserted beaches and great for wildlife.
The weather was fine on Tuesday driving up. Cold and a dusting of snow. It went downhill on Wednesday and Thursday with yet another tropical spell of weather.

LOW LEVEL SNOW & LOW TEMPERATURES

Cairn Gorm,  more winter like

Drifts

High winds

Not seen rime ice for a while

Minus 5 C at mid day on Cairn Gorm

More snow in Aviemore 

Essential winter gear

More like winter conditions 

Anyone for skiing?

This winter we have only had snow falling in Aviemore on just a handful of days. So it was nice to see it snowing heavily in the garden this morning. Low temperatures overnight and we are back into winter mode. The rucksack was packed with full winter gear for the hills. Windy Ridge on Cairn Gorm lived up to its namesake with winds in excess of 50mph. It was great to feel the icy cold and spindrift on my face as I battled up the ridge. The SW winds were actually dumping more snow over in the West today. Even though we had snow in Aviemore, there was only a dusting on the hills. A lot being blown into the Corries, the ridges were mostly bare. Summit temperatures on Cairn Gorm dropped to minus 6.5 C by afternoon. Not many folk seen on the hills. Looking like snow falling for much of this week. Winter returns.

COLDER, SNOW ON ITS WAY

Ptarmigan high up in the snow

Nice group of 8-10 ptarmigan today

The Mountain Hare didn't feel like running high up to the snow

On watch

Taking it easy

This place will be a lot whiter next week

Icelandic Moss

Slight breeze now and again

Some better light than the other day

The freezing level had lowered to about 1000m today. A dry morning wit just some fain, light drizzly spells. The freezing levels due to drop further into the weekend and next week looks like we're back into proper winter weather with snow showers and low summit temperatures. Out photographing the Ptarmigan and Mountain Hare in the Northern Corries. The snowline high up so some steep ground to see them. Rightly so, you've got to earn your views here and these remarkable birds are worth the effort. It was nice to bump into James and his client today, also out photographing the ptarmigan.
Looking forward to the snow. Bring it on.

PTARMIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY IN BENIGN CONDITIONS

Limited snow in Coire an Lochain

Snow free walk ins

Good to see these guys again

Female ptarmigan

Rubbish light for photography

Limited snowcover

Another warm day with temperatures of plus 7 C up high in The Cairngorms. All the approach paths into the corries now free of snow. The limited snow is high up in the coire and gullies. Not much in the way of winter gear used today. No gloves required at over 1000m. All I wore all day was a baselayer and windproof. Not a breath of wind in the coire so good day for wildlife photography although the light was flat and pretty rubbish. Lots of croaking of the ptarmigan, always a lovely sound in the hills. They had me on steep ground today for photographing them. But great news that numbers are on the increase, well my sightings anyway. As mentioned in my blog already, numbers of these special birds have been quite low since last summer.
Thankfully we are in for some colder weather and fresh snowfall by Friday or Saturday. Winter for now, on hold.

WINTER SUNSHINE

Coire an t-sneachda 

Point Five Gully

A group heading up Point Five Gully

Sow Bunting down at the Coire Cas carpark

Goat Track and Fiacaill Buttress 

Sunrise over the coire

Hard, frozen snow, Cas Coire

Looking up to pt. 1141m

High pressure making its presence over much of The Highlands. Temperatures up to plus 7 degrees C in the upper reaches of Coire an t-sneachda this afternoon. Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures,  the snow was frozen hard earlier in the day. Even the approach paths into the Northern Corries had refrozen water ice for much of the way in the afternoon. Beautiful clear skies all day over The Cairngorms but very strong SW winds on the tops and plateau. It was nice and sheltered in Coire Cas and later Coire an t-sneachda. plenty of folk out climbing and winter skills groups. Staying mild all week but snow fall at the weekend.

SETTLED WEATHER, SETTLED MOUNTAIN HARES

A fine sunrise over The Cairngorms

Fine light for Mountain Hare photography

Nothing quite like a Sunday morning stretch

Afternoon cloudscapes over Sgor Gaoithe

Mesmerising clouds

Great feet for tunnelling snow

Some posing for me

Alert ears

The high pressure now over most of The Highlands bringing a welcome settled spell of mostly dry weather. Despite the isobars spreading out it is still quite windy on the high tops. With a forecast of some nice sunny weather again, I ventured to the lower Monadhliath again for some more Mountain Hare photography. A fabulous dawn with some great light across the snowfields. I quite quickly spotted one individual Hare. He looked very settled in his wee snow shelter he's constructed. I spent over 1 hour with this chap. He was content and quite happy just pondering what I was up to. He did move around, but only to his other snow hole he'd obviously made earlier, just 2 metres away. Between mooching about, stretching and posing he just sat about and was very photogenic. With the beautiful light and good snow cover it was probably the g=finest photography session I have ever had with these wonderful animals. What a privilege.