One of the species I wanted to see in Scotland was ptarmigan. These are a bird of mountain tops in the UK and it usually it would have involved walking through snow to get them in March, but the record warm weather meant there was little snow about so easier walking. Unfortunately it also meant that the ptarmigan were right at the very top of the mountains! The location we went to was Glen Shee and involved walking up a very steep slope, something I’m not really used to living in a flat county like Essex!
The first birds I spotted had spotted me first!
The second bird was in a more photogenic position.
My 300mm gave me some ok shots (those above) but I had to crop them a bit more than I would have liked. Luckily I was been shown around by my friend Ian (check out his and Pauline’s awesome photos here: Pauline and Ian’s Zenfolio) and he had somehow lugged up a canon 7d with a 500mm prime + teleconvertor and was kind enough to let me take some shots:
Afterwards I spotted another group, 1 male and 2 females.
The other species I wanted to see was a mountain hare. I had seen loads of them as roadkill, but wanted some live ones. I didn’t get close to any but did get some nice distant ‘in their habitat’ shots.
Superb shots! You must be chuffed! 😀
Hi
They are brilliant photo’s, I’m going upto Scotland On 13th May this year & was going to stop at Glenshee for Tarmies, would you mind giving me an idea of what direction I should go in to try for A Bird I’m desperste to see !!
many thanks
Brian