Chasing Mountain Hares in Scotland

Mountain Hares

I guess looking for greener pastures on the other side of the fence, is just part of being human. We get so excited about foreign places that we forget to focus on our local patch. I’ve been guilty of that over the past few years while living in the UK. Local species have been forgotten about for awhile

I’ve opted instead to travel to places like the USA, India, Kenya, the Arctic, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Norway, Finland and Sri Lanka. Chasing instead the wonderful wildlife that they have (yes, I know, nothing wrong with that).

In the back of my mind, and especially on wet London days, I knew that I needed to get more of the local UK species added to my stock. Then the thoughts would vanish as I planned another extended trip, somewhere abroad, where it was hot and wild.

New Career

In 2014, I embarked a new path towards a career as an Author (see my other site Marinovich Books). I recently published my a series set against climate change, and continue to work on other environmental related action and thriller works (click here to stay informed of all the releases).

As you do with any new career, you have to watch the pennies initially, and so I decided to focus on UK species.

Winter Wildlife tour

I got the year royally kicked off with a wonderful Winter Wildlife photo tour in the Cairngorms in Scotland (run by Northshots). The main targets were Red Squirrels, Mountain Hare, Ptarmigan, Red Deer, Red Grouse, Crested Tit.

So it was on a splendidly, calm and clear morning, that we put all our gear on and started hiking up the Cairngorms. The area had had a lot of snow the week before (to the enjoyment of all the snowboarders), and we hoped to get some photos of the elusive Ptarmigan which are found up above 2500ft. I was expecting a little climbing and if we were lucky, a chance to get a few photos.

The Mad Hare

About 250m from the ski lift, we encountered a pair of Red Grouse (more photos on the Trip report) and then another few hundred meters further on, our guide James Shooter, spotted the stunning Mountain hare. It was a great spot too. It was sat in a small hollow and seemed quite tolerant.

Until we tried to approach it that is, then it bounced away and sat down further up the slope. This movement was met with a thunderous sound of camera shutters. Then a few minutes later, it ran back towards us before passing to our left. It circled all the way around us and bolting back up the mountain. I had the 1Dx set up for action, so was lucky to get a great sequence as it ran passed.

Would love to get back to see these little guys again in the summer months

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