BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN DAY IN THE CAIRNGORMS

There has been a couple of days of heavy rain down in Aviemore on Wednesday and Thursday. Both days leaving a dusting of wet snow above 1000m in the Cairngorms. Quite normal to get cool weather and a sprinkling of snow at this time of year. Today we had a beautiful and sunny day.

I took a wander into the Northern and Eastern slopes of Cairn Gorm. I was off paths almost from the carpark. In search of Ptarmigan to photograph. There was a brisk SW wind, despite the wall to wall sun it was still cool. Only a few degrees  above freezing on the high summits. The snowpatch in Ciste Mheared is now very small and will vanish soon. The other close patches of Feithe Buidhe and Garbh Uisge are bigger but they too will probably melt away this month.....maybe.

I spotted a lovely group of 4 Ptarmigan.  They were flighty. I spent 2 hours trying to get a shot of them or just one. They weren't playing ball today. They were just playing hard to get. To add insult to injury, a Mountain Hare ran right across the group and spooked the Ptarmigan again. On my way back down the hill I spotted another group of 5 Ptarmigan at around 850m. These were also flighty and took to the wing without me even seeing them from 30m away. That's the thing with wildlife. You win some, loose some. One thing for sure, they will always lure you back for another day.

Looking like a very wet weekend. What a shame. I am guiding on An Teallach again tomorrow.