Mountain Hares Peak District

My Christmas present was a day out on the Peak District moorland with Tesni Ward to photograph Mountain Hares.
I was apprehensive as Tesni states you need to be reasonably fit for this tour. With her being half my age and an ex-GB athlete I was worried.
Tesni was great not only giving me the chance to see and photograph these beautifull creatures, but helping carrying my 500mm f4 and offering a hand to negociate the rough terrain when I needed help.

The moors were stunning, the fog not so good. At the start of the 5-6 mile walk many Red Grouse where close by and provided good photo opportunities.
The walking was strenuous and tiring but we saw many hares, some close others at a distance.

To ensure the hares are not disturbed we sat/laid on the heather and slowly knee walked towards the animal as they started to accept us. Patience was needed, after waiting 50 mins for the first hare to show some movement we had to move away and on as it was obvious he was not happy with us.

As we climbed higher we saw more hares and had great views from the trig point at Bleaklow, near the RB29 Superfortress crash site.

As we started to walk back the best view of a hare appeared right under our feet in a form, Tesni had seen it I didn't. We tried moving very slowly to get further away to photograph it, however it wasn't having it and bolted. It was great to see it majestically sprint across the heather, however such a shame we disturbed it.
Luckily as we continued our walk we found another close by and lowered ourselves to watch it. Wonderful to observe the behaviour of a very charismatic creature.
We could see about 5 hares in various locations as we sat and watched this one, getting some good photographs.

Finally with many images we arrived back at our cars at 4pm, having started at 9am. A great day and many thanks to Tesni for all her help. The three hour drive home wasn't enjoyable and the next morning my body was complaining from the walking but it was all worth it.