Mountains Hares and Ptarmigan in winter

11-12 Mar - A guided photographic day arranged with James Roddie, renowned wildlife and landscape photographer in the Scottish Highlands. I was very fortunate with the weather - a week ago, the hills were unseasonably green and were lacking in snow, but winter had returned in the last few days, a suitable scene for the wintry white raiment of the Hares and Ptarmigans to blend in. I awoke to a perfect winter scene of sun rising over snowy hill with mist clinging to the slopes, and snow lacing the tree branches, all lit by the low sunlight. Our original plans to go to the the hills west of Tomatin were stymied by an overturned snowplough on the narrow single-track road, which was quite treacherous with fresh snow, although easily passable. We therefore headed to the Cairngorm ski area which allows easy access to the northern parts of the Cairngorms, and we flanked around Cairn Gorm itself to the coire to the east - here the going was slow, with snow between the boulders up to 2 feet deep making for tiring going, but we soon started to see Mountain Hares in various stages of white, some amazingly concealed in rockpiles, out of the wind, and others out on the slopes and feeding on heather protruding from the snow. Beautiul animals and amazingly hard to see at times, blending in with the wintry landscape. Ptarmigan are usually easy to find here, but we didn't hear their calls and not until we were descending back to the car park did we find 3 birds, unobtrusive amongst the boulders, and well-camouflaged, tending to rely on their colouring rather than flight for their safety. We had close views of both male and female birds. A very successful day, stunning landscapes, with the sun reflecting and dazzling off the snow, and spindrift flowing over the landscape in the wind. We were especially fortunate to get good views and photo opportunities for both species on the same walk, as our planned excursion the next day was cancelled due to forecast very high winds on the mountains. A memorable day of stunning views, light and wildlife activity, in an arctic landscape, but in the UK.