After watching the numerous Brown Hare on the farm I got the urge to photograph mountain hare, its has been on my list for years, after checking exactly where to find them in Scotland, adding up the cost for a weeks stay in a local cottage, drive time and fuel costs I decided to try a more local spot, the Peak District. Picking a few spots were they might reside, I decided the best plan of attack was to park up, climb high and scan the higher grounds that they prefer.
We parked up at Torside and went for a 8 mile walk, id spotted a few Hare tracks and droppings which was made easy as it had snowed a few days previous and they stood out nicely. We tracked them up hill for a while then spotted the silhouette of a Hare watching our approach, luckily we found some at the 4 mile turning point.
Next was the return visit to check there predictability, we picked a slightly different route and approach, they have to see you coming! theres runners and stayers, as luck would have it I managed to spot a stayer with my binoculars just before the mist rolled in and made him invisible. I carried on towards the earlier sighting, making sure not to make full face contact and sudden stops, I got low and comfy and used my rucksack to shoot from.
As this was my first encounter I was taking it easy, little movement always under cover, Id got a bit of tunnel vision looking through my camera and straight ahead watching this one, id totally missed the other Hare to my right half the distance, again sat motionless watching me, luckily both remained calm as I took a few shots before dropping my teleconverter off.
Kit used: The usual camera gear 600mm lens, large rucksack to hide behind and as a solid rest for the camera, bag hide which was great to keep the howling winds off, a small ground sheet to lay on.
The flip side to having wild native Mountain Hare on open access Moor.... Game birds, Dogs and illegal hunting, so the following is unfortunately a common sight. Ive no idea what had caused the death of this creature, it hadn't been dead long maybe a few days, I can only imagine what had caused the damage other then its throat and rear had been gnawed, ill let you decide.
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