I try and get out on the hill on the Winter Solstice, even camp high up if we get a good clear weather forecast. This last couple of weeks we've had some unsettled weather with constant Atlantic lows coming across most of The Highlands. Well no Solstice walk this year but missing it by 1 day is no big deal. Today's weather was just superb, so I didn't have any misgivings.
The high Cairngorms weather forecast looked like cloud on the tops throughout the day so I headed to the Monadhliath lower hills for some sunshine and to be amongst the Mountain Hare. Setting off shortly after dawn (that's around 8.30am this time of year) and I chose the right hills. Looking across to the Cairngorms and Feshie hills they were indeed in cloud most of the day. I was bathed in wall to wall sunshine all day.
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Perfect conditions. Clear, cold and a fresh dusting of snow down to around 700m. Noce to feel winter back again. The snow was crunchy and any old remaining snow patches were frozen solid. A great day for photographing the hares. A fabulous count and photographing about a dozen different hares, with 3 pairs together which was lovely to see. This winter I am hoping to capture the hares 'boxing'. This is one of the highlights of the year if you love mountain Hare photography. The courtship ritual as the female fights off her male suitors before finally settling on her mate. For now they were just lovely to see together, peacefully sitting in the sunshine and happy to be camouflaged in the fresh snow.
Some wonderful light and snow to show off these beautiful creatures. I ventured around to the North side of the hillside in the afternoon and a sharp contrast in temperatures out of the sun. I was rewarded with a beautiful posing hare who was very content to sit and pose.
A wonderful 4 hours in total with these wonderful hares. Come 2.30pm and the light really does diminish at the Solstice ( near Solstice!). A beautiful moon has dusk fell. Top day.
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