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| Christmas morning with this wee hare |
Happy Christmas Holiday folks.
We're enjoying some decent snow in the mountains this festive period. There was more snow falling at Aviemore level again today. On Christmas Day we had our usual walk up the hills for a guaranteed (every year) White Christmas. There will be snow in the Scottish hills every 25th December if you want a white one. On Christmas morning I spent one and a half hours lieing in swet snow photographing this wee hare.
A wonderful Christmas morning spent in the company of this beautiful wee mountain hare. My new 'friend' this year who I've been photographing since late Spring when he was just a very small, young hare. I identified him early on in the year by his distinctive notch in his ears. He frequents the same few forms in the area and always a delight when I spot him.
Today he let me lie in the snow quite close up, around 2 metres, for well over one and a half hours.
Spending time on wet snow getting soaked and cold is a minor nuisance for us humans. Imagine the weather these beautiful animals endure all their life.
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| A mild day of late, someone was running while I was photographing |
Overnight we had snow back to Aviemore level. Boxing Day was wonderful and quiet where we head for the mountain hares. The trees were looking lovely and bonny again on the lower ground.
We had an hour or so of heavy snowfall on the walk up to see the mountain hares. Perfect timing when we got up high, the clouds lifted and the rest of the day was dry, clear and some very nice sunshine.
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| Fresh snow in Strathspey |
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| Snowy on the walk up |
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| An hour later and blue skies |
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| Good snowcover for the hares |
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| Stunning and atmospheric |
No great images today of the hares. One was completely buried in the fresh snow, he suddenly upped up in a loud of snow and ran gracefully Cross there's snow. Sometimes you just have to marvel.at them when in a stunning landscape like this and forget about trying to capture them on film.
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| In there environment |
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| Speed over deep, soft snow |
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| Wonderful |
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| Late afternoon light |
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| What wonderful creatures |
By 2.30pm the light was flat, tge sun sinking in thickening cloud. Time to go home. Walking back down the hill the snow started falling again. That was well timed I thought. Whilst I headed back to the comforts and warmth of my house the amazing mountain hares are just getting on with another bout of heavy snowfall and cold temperatures. It never ceases to amaze me how these creatures live in such an hostile environment. They do, and they will always do so.
