On the hills again yesterday afternoon and couldn't find 'my' friendly hare but after a good stomp came across this chap. Light rain and dark clouds but I was pleased with the result.

Mountain hares have been the focus of my photo activities for the past few weeks at several locations in the Highlands. As I've mentioned before, most hares sprint off as soon as they spot you but for some reason this male allows a very close approach. In fact he's equally frustrating to photograph because he rarely even open his eyes. Last Sunday I took a stroll with Gale to see if we could find him again and sure enough he was in his usual spot.

With the forecast for the rest of the week looking grim, I ventured out this afternoon for a yomp in the hills in search of mountain hares. I soon flushed several, which high-tailed it up the hill and over the horizon. Feeling a little cheesed off at their lack of approachability I munched my way through a half frozen snickers, when for no apparent reason a hare decided I was interesting after all and ran straight towards me, quickly followed by a second and then a third. Sometimes you just get lucky!

For the last three months I have had an occasional sighting of a short-eared owl hunting over some rough grassland. The sightings have been brief and irregular and whilst it's been great to see what is my favourite bird, I didn't really consider there was much chance of securing any images. But over the past week I've seen the owl several times and just a few days ago I saw three hunting over the same area suggesting that they may have bred close-by.


After watching them on a couple of evenings I noticed that one bird landed on a particular post on several occasions so I decided to chance my arm and set up a hide. With a multitude of posts to choose from I didn't really get in the hide with much expectation of getting any shots but you never know. The first evening was dull and no birds showed up at all but the next night the conditions were perfect with beautiful backlighting. With only a narrow window of light I was willing the owl to land. It eventually did but not on the post I wanted and 15 minutes after the sun had set. I was happy enough with the second prize but having seen the potential I wanted more!



So, the following evening I repositioned the hide slightly to give myself a better view and tried again. I'd barely set-up and settled down when from nowhere the owl landed on exactly the post I had focused on. I couldn't believe my luck and with trembling hands rattled off several frames. The owl left to continue hunting and I was able to get a few flight shots with the low sunlight glowing through the owl's almost translucent wings. Then just as before it returned onto the same post and unperturbed by the noise of the camera, settled for more than 5 minutes. An evening of photographic heaven!