Story Behind the Photo: Sitting Mountain Hare

DRL Photography is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk

This mountain hare picture was taken in February 2019, it had been a miserable winter in which we were all hoping for a good snow that never really came.

You can see a bit of snow behind the mountain hare but, trust me, it was far less than what the hares would have liked and what the nature photographers of the Cairngorms would have liked either!

The snow cover was patchy, and in frequent but, luckily, so far in 2020 we have had more snow, and as I look out of my window across the snow covered mountain tops I can’t wait to go out and get some new pictures.

Unfortunately, the snow here in Scotland becomes more fickle with each passing year, and all the nature photographers, skiers and snow sports enthusiasts are prancing up and down trying to call on the winter gods to look favourably upon us in the years to come.

Scotland is assuredly feeling the effects of climate change, as 100 years ago we would have found it difficult to open the door of the house, whereas today you can see people walking in shorts through the towns. 

Mountain hares really feel the lack of snow, as their natural defence is camouflage their coat or pelage changes to white for the winter, that way they can blend in to the snowy landscape and their aerial predators will find it difficult to spot them.

When there is a lack of snow on the other hand, mountain hares stick out of the landscape as a white blob sitting amongst brown heather.

In other words, they are suddenly easy pickings for their predators! And unfortunately there is a decline in their numbers as they are eaten.

Their numbers are also affected by red grouse shooting, as gamekeepers believe (quite without evidence) that mountain hares spread disease among their game birds, so they cull the mountain hares every year, shooting hundreds of them across Scotland.

Some estates are moving away from this practice, and a recent study shows that mountain hares have a natural cycle of population growth.

Their numbers increase until their environment is unable to support the level of population at which point their numbers will decrease. This cycle happens over several years, but it is truly fascinating! 

This picture was taken on Cairngorm Mountain, which is a nature reserve where they do not cull the mountain hare numbers and allow them to fall into this natural population cycle.

The funny thing about this picture is that I wasn’t targeting mountain hares on this day!

I was actually trying to photograph ptarmigan in their winter plumage on the snow. Ptarmigan are another camouflage specialist that changes their plumage to white to blend into their snowy environment.

Mountain hares can be found at lower altitudes but ptarmigan are only found above 700 meters in the U.K. so the hike to find them can be gruelling, especially in winter battling with the snow.

In the summer where I go to find ptarmigan typically takes me about an hour and a half to hike, but on this occasion in the cold and snow it ended up taking me more than 2 hours. 

Once I finally made it into their territory I began to scramble over boulders and rocks searching for the ptarmigan.

I could hear their call echoing around the corrie, a bowl like formation on a mountain. It made targeting them difficult as the sound is so unusual, a burbling croaking noise. Very primeval and almost reptilian. And when it is echoing around you, it is impossible to know where they are hiding.

After several hours of climbing around, I eventually sat down and ate my lunch. I was very exhausted at this point.

I was with my friend and while I was on one side of the corrie making matters worse for myself, doing hard work climbing and scrambling and exhausting myself, he was on the other side of the corrie surrounded by ptarmigans flying around him.

As you can imagine, I was more than annoyed and angry at myself. I should’ve stuck with him!

I sat watching him taking pictures of the birds while I ate my lunch and tried to gather my remaining energy for one last effort to cross the corrie plateau and clamber up to him, so that I could get some ptarmigan photos. 

I began the climb up to where he was, the steep sides of the corrie meant that at some points I was crawling a bit, and trying to balance myself with the tripod.

I was already exhausted, and this was beginning to push me to my limit, so I abandoned my tripod and bag, and started to carry my camera handheld.

After a particularly gruelling scramble over a boulder, I sat in the snow and tried to catch my breath.

Looking through my binoculars at my friend, I was beginning to think I would never be able to get over there.

The day was coming to a close there was only a couple of hours left, we both knew that we would need to head back very soon.

Feeling dejected and useless, I was about to get up and call over to my friend to signal that we should head back when I saw this little mountain hare sticking his head up from among a couple boulders.

I finally had a decent subject! 

Now that I had a hare to photograph, I forgot completely about heading back and how exhausted I was.

I had a new energy that I had been lacking and I was completely revitalised.

I slowly moved closer, but I was not in a good position as I was sitting above the hare and that makes them very nervous.

I was being cautious, as was the hare.

I began taking pictures, the hare was tucked down and was agitated.

He sat up, alert, looking at me and I knew that in a moment he was going to bolt.

That was this moment.

I took this picture and with 5 seconds he ran away via his escape route. Knowing this, his shape and form really makes me like this picture.

It was the result of one of my hardest days and I really like it for that. I hope you agree. 

This picture was taken with my Canon 7D mark II and my Canon 100-400mm f4-5.6L at 400mm, giving an effective focal length of 640mm. The exposure was 1/1000 of a second, at f/5.6 and ISO 400.

Related Articles

Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.