THE MOUNTAIN HARE'S ARE WHITE

 

It's that time of year again when the adorable Mountain Hare morph into their Winter pelage. I have had the privilege and pleasure to have been photographing a particular group of hares over the last 12 months. Watching the seasons change and the hares change colour is just wonderful. Within just  a week since I last went up to photograph them they have completely transformed.

I went up to my usual area on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately it was thick cloud above 700m with only limited visibility. The strong, gusty winds didnt help either. So I made a return trip on Thursday in superbly better weather.

The high Cairngorms were clear and the sun was out most of the day. Lighter winds but these strengthend  during the day. Enough time and good light to get some nice images of the hares.

It was quite dark by mid afternoon. Mid November the light soon starts fading come 2pm. With the strong winds the clouds looked quite spectacular, verging on lenticular. 

On Friday I took a trip through the magnificent Abernethy Pine Forest. There was some lovely bright sunshine whilst up on the high Cairngorms the winds were up to gale force. The temperatures had dropped overnight to leave a sprinkling of snow above about 1100m. 

I eventually ended up at Loch Garten. Looking for some Crested Tit to photograph but they were shy today. Plenty of Coal Tits, Great Tits and Robin. The Red Squirrel and Great Spotted Woodpecker were amusing to watch as they stocked up on nuts.

Another afternoon were the skies darkened. I'm looking forward to winter arriving. Hoping for a good dump of  proper snow and sustained cold which we haven't experienced yet. If you remember this time last year we had brilliant early winter conditions with an excellent snow cover for many days. I think the Mountain Hare will welcome that too, let's hope they're safe.