Mountain Hares in heather

When the snow has all but gone, the white Mountain Hares sit in the dark winter heather

A few weeks back, just after the big dump of snow, i went back to visit the mountain hares. This time, the road was clear and I was free from worry.

Snow patches littered the hills, but were few and far between. Spotting hares is much easier in these conditions, but it is still helpful to know here to look. I was very lucky to see a hare I have photographed many times before and I managed to get a good few hours watching her.

The issue with this location… The long grass!

When the snow isn’t weighing it down, the grass can get in the way. More often than not, the hares aren’t in the heather but hunkered down in the grassy slopes. So this day it was a game of ‘press the shutter as soon as the wind blows the bit of grass away’.

Can you spot the hare?

But here I was, walking up to one of the known spots to see the hares. I passed a small photography group on my way up, had a mild panic because I thought I had lost my lens hood forever and panicked hen I couldn’t immediately spot any of the hares. It seems that all I had to do was take a minute and it wasn’t long before I had two in my sight.

After 4 hours, the sun had tucked itself behind the mountains, it was getting cold and I felt it was time to leave this hare in peace. It was another wonderful trip to see these beautiful creatures.