Wing-marks in snow, Monadhliath Mountains
An unusual image this week – for several reasons. We don’t often see things like this in the Scottish mountains, as it is so rarely settled enough from one day to the next. Normally there is constant snow blowing, obscuring your own tracks within minutes. On this day there had been constant freezing conditions for days, building up a surface layer of hoar-frost crystals on the snow. The crystals sparkle and dazzle in the sunlight like a field of diamonds. There had been no wind for days, so there was a criss-cross of animal tracks everywhere – mostly mountain hare, but also fox and tiny mice prints. And then there was this – the take-off run of a grouse, its wingtips brushing the snow.
“The winds that sometimes take something we love, are the same that bring us something we learn to love. Therefore we should not cry about something that was taken from us, but, yes, love what we have been given. Because what is really ours is never gone forever.”
– Bob Marley