A Day On The Hill With Charles & Sandy
A couple of weeks ago I met Charles and Sandy in one of my favourite places on the edge of the Cairngorms for another hill day in search of the moulting mountain hares. Charles had reached out to me following the trip with last month and we had quickly put together an itinerary for the day.
The forecast was promising with clear skies in the morning and a crisp breeze making it easier to work out where the hares were likely to be. Mountain hares spend much of their time outside and so if they can find somewhere warm and out of the wind to relax then they will and so I made a beeline for the eastern slope of the hillside when I arrived an hour before Charles and Sandy.
It didn’t take long for me to spot three hares close together and, even more fortunately, they were low down on the hillside meaning that we wouldn’t have to climb too high for the morning. They looked like they had almost entirely changed their coats but there were a few tufts of white still visible. The mountain hares have long, thick guard hares which protect their waterproof fur from the elements during the winter but they lose much of this ‘fluff’ during the summer which makes them look much slimmer!
I made my way back down to the car park to meet the guys and, after a quick introduction and briefing, we all traipsed back up to the hillside. During the walk in, we took the opportunity to observe some tracks left behind by weasels and hares in the soft mud. Because stoats and weasels are also mustelids (like pine martens) their poop looks very similar: twisted and dark but substantially smaller and usually without the loop. I’m not entirely sure but given their size, I would be surprised if weasels and stoats would be predating on the mountain hares which are considerably larger, however they will be feeding on the grouse and rabbits in the area instead so they’re well fed!
As we made our way up the hill is because apparent that Charles’ boots were going to be an issue as the sole had started to separate from the boot and so the three of us limped our way to a small ditch to drop our kit and have a quick scout of the area. Almost immediately we spied a juvenile hare just at the entrance to a burrow. Mountain hare babies (leverets) are born underground and make their way to the surface for springtime and I suspect that this first individual was this year’s baby. The leverets have very round head which are in contrast to the longer more angular heads of the adults. After a half hour of photographing this first hare, it started down the hill, disturbing a new, adult hare below. Sandy made the excellent suggestion that we try and move onto this one rather than clambering uphill further.
This turned out to be the right move as this particular hare is one which I have had the good fortune to photograph on a number of occasions - he is exceptionally relaxed. And so, despite Sandy’s highly amusing rolling and crawling around, it became apparent that the animal was going to allow us to get close without too much effort. The three of us were within 10m of the hare who continued to groom and feed in front of us: a sure sign of relaxation and contentment.
After an hour or two of this interaction I took Sandy up the hill a little to try and get him onto a couple more hares I had spied above us, leaving Charles with the relaxed adult. Sandy and I got eyes onto two more adults and Sandy rounded off his day with (I think) a total of five hares seen!
By lunchtime, the pair were content to make their way back to the cars and head off in search of a much less challenging subject… a coffee shop!
As always, the welfare of the animals was our top priority and so we made sure to give all of them a wide birth and minimise disturbance on the hillside on our return leg. It’s worth mentioning as well that by the time we headed to the car, Charles boot had completely fallen apart and so kudos to him, he ripped off the sole completely and made his way back with one and a half boots!
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