GLORIOUS CAIRNGORM WEATHER & WILDLIFE

 Mountain Hares very active today

Occasionaly they do portraits

Mountain Hare heavan

Female Ptarmigan

Hiding

Legs bulit for snow!

Having a rest

Alpine ridges

A glorious warm day in The Cairngorms. Wall to wall sun and very little wind. High pressure sitting  over The Highlands and bringing lovely warm weather. A great day for wildlife. Mountain Hares very active and large numbers. It's a fabulous tome of year for wildlife in the National Park and especially on the Cairngorm plateau. If you are interested in wildlife tours or wildlife photography please check out my new website page for Wildlife Tours.
Last day of warm weather tomorrow as things are cooling down again at the weekend with cold air and snow showers on the mountains.

ALPINE CAIRNGORMS AGAIN

Coire an t-Sneachda & Cairn Gorm

Big cornices over The Vent

Fiacaill Ridge

More snow than ever on the Fiacaill

Mountain Hares a plenty today

Alpine, definitely

Breaking trail again on the Fiacaill

Cairn Lochan

Unbroken snow all the way to Ben Macdui

Coire an Lochan

Male ptarmigan, plenty of these today

A stunning Alpine day again in The Cairngorms. The sun was out, the temperatures up, the sunglasses on, no wind, loads and loads of snow. Loads and loads of Mountain Hare, loads and loads of Ptarmigan. A great day.

WINTER CONTINUES......SGOR GAOITHE AFTERNOON BLAST

Just the two of us on the hill today

Big cornices

Glen Feshie

Braeriach

Full snow cover on the Moine Mor

Timed perfectly, summit in sun

Braeraich and Loch Einich

Another snow shower coming

The temperatures have been quite low on the summits the last few days and today's freezing level was even lower with Cairn Gorm summit temperatures of -5 overnight. Snow falling down to Aviemore level this morning but it is April and relatively warm down in the valley so it's not causing any chaos on the roads. Snowline around 850m here in The Cairngorms. The last week we have had a run of sunny spells and snow showers. We hit it right today, getting to the summit of Sgor Gaoithe just between snow showers and getting nice views. Full on winter conditions with poor visibility and almost balaclava and snow goggle conditions at times, when the showers came over. They were quite brief, lasting just a matter of minutes. It's looking more like mid winter up on the tops and the plateau is just wonderful, right across the Moine Mor there isn't a single break in the snow cover. Sgor Gaoithe is a great Munro and is always quiet, even at weekends. A great view point over to Braeriach and the beauty is you can be up and down it in half a day, even in winter :)

THE OSPREY RETURNS

I'm back!

Male and female Osprey

Trouble brewing

Grey Heron and Osprey, who will win?

Two Grey Heron and one Osprey, who will win?

Grey Heron return!

Back to the tree

Here we go again

Nice peaceful bike ride after all the excitement!

It's still winter up there, Braeriach white as white

Spring time in The Cairngorm National Park is absolutely wonderful for all the wildlife that we are so lucky to have here. The Osprey is one of those brilliant success stories of once declining bird species that have recovered so well in recent years. Here in the National Park there are many sites to observe these magnificent birds that migrate all the way from West Africa to our shores. The first Osprey to return was over two weeks ago and the well known characters over at Loch Garten have been there since end of March. A great spot to see them close up on a TV monitor and excellent visitor centre. You can get some great photos close up to these birds down at the Rothemurchis Fisheries too, where they are fed plenty of trout throughout the season.  Like all wildlife, though, I love to see them in their 'natural' setting. Last year I spotted a nesting pair not a million miles away from Aviemore, just by chance. So it was nice to see them back again this year. This morning they were very peaceful, the male and female were perched on top of their favourite Scots pine tree. Not much fishing going on, not yet. Once the eggs are hatched then there will be lots of  feeding going on through the late Spring and into summer to fatten up the young.
I cycled along the Speyside Way in the afternoon and another well known place further up Strathspey. Good to see one of them perched in it's nest but not much going on here. On the way home I swung by again to see 'my Osprey' again. Things had heated up a bit. They were very active and trying to muscle out a pair of Grey Heron on their stretch of water. What a racket going on, the Herons backed off and ended up out of sight. Next minute a third Osprey comes over (presumably another male) and the two males are fighting it out in the skies. Fantastic!
Meanwhile, up in the peaceful hills, it's still looking very wintry up on the Cairngorm plateau and corries. A few more cm's of fresh snow as been put down over the last couple of days and looks like the snowline as dropped a wee bit too. More snow forecast over the weekend. Spring in the glen, winter on the mountains, still.

ALPINE CONDITIONS

The Fiacaill Coire Sneachda ridge looking superb

Coire an Lochain

More fresh snow, first along

Absolutely stunning weather and conditions

Mine the only footprints today

These guys enjoying the sun

So much snow!

Cloud creeping across Ben Macdui

Do I look good or what?

Fiacaill Buttress

Away from the crowds on Cairn Gorm

Overnight temperatures were well below freezing thanks to clear skies over the Cairngorms. A clear morning and the snow has firmed up very nicely. Of course once the heat of the sun gets at it it quickly softens up. A truly stunning morning to be out on the hills. There are days when everything is just perfect. Beautiful weather, great snow and photographing some of our unique wildlife. I wanted to capture the ptarmigan in their changing Spring plumage. I was so lucky to have a pair of them just posing in the sunshine and quite happy with my presence.There is still a lot of snow in the Scottish hills if you are looking for 'summer' conditions. Most of the higher Munro peaks across the Highlands are still very much under a winter influence. The whole of this week is staying relatively cold high up and there s a great depth of snow in the big corries of The Cairngorms, Glencoe, Ben Nevis and Creag Meagaidh to name but a few. Even ridges and plateau will have snow cover for some time still. Enjoy the last taste of winter and the sun may even shine on you!

BENIGN CONDITIONS IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Looking west to Braeriach from Creag an Leth-choin, Lurcher's Crag

The Lairig Ghru from the summit

V formation of  Greylagg geese

Sgor Gaoithe & Sgoran Dubh-Mor

Coire an Lochain

The locals sunbathing this afternoon

Creag an Leth-choin & Strathspey

Cairn Lochan

Time for a change

 Another day of quite, calm, settled conditions, despite a weather forecasts looking a bit wet and miserable in the Cairngorms. There was hardly a breeze on the summits and the tops of around 1000m being clear of cloud and well above freezing today.

Creag an Leth-choin or Lurcher's Crag, as it is commonly spelt, is a nice quiet summit for a busy weekend and a great view point down the Lairig Ghru and west to Braeriach. It can sometimes be clear of cloud when the higher Cairngorm summits are shrouded in mist, as it was today. Not that long ago it reigned supreme as a Munro summit, but the powers that be demoted it. Bit bizarre considering the nearest Munro to it is Cairn Gorm which is about a 2 hour walk away with a few ups and downs in between. Such is the strange phenomenon of the 'guardians' of the Munro tables and their ability to change them at a whim. We hardly saw a soul today, apart form the local wildlife. Despite it being relatively mild, we did get the odd snow shower down to 850m. Still huge amounts of snow on the plateau and in the corries. If we get a few clear nights then it will freeze well. Spring is just round the corner, I guess.