Mountain hares

A good overnight spot on a small nature reserve. On the lake could be seen Goosander, hundreds of House martins and terns, a red shank, a possible green shank, a pair of whooper and one mute swan also a good spot by John of a northern diver. He wasn't sure and fortunately a woman arrived with a telescope and confirmed she had just seen it.

A cold start this morning and sunny, it feels good. We are continuing to head north on the east side. The countryside in the last two days has changed, more open with fields and now wonder what they grow here. Also as we move north Spring is just springing, the leaves are just greening up, blueberries haven't formed yet whereas a week ago we came across a wide area of the berries.

The roads are quiet, the route scenic. We headed for the town of Skelleftea where the route has changed to a more west then north direction on the E45. When topping up with diesel we asked a woman who stopped to chat about a tap for water to fill our tank. She offered her place and this we did, not ideal but we couldn't refuse, she then asked for a lift to the next town some 25 miles to collect a car from the garage. This was fine and have just dropped her off. She mentioned the deep snow they had a few weeks ago which has only now thawed, there are patches lying around hence the blip.

This evening we are camped on a track thats part of a quarry, with grey stone around us. We had just started to eat when a mountain hair popped into view, it was grey blending well with the land around it, it sat looked around and bounded off, a few minutes later there it was again only on the other side of the van. Earlier we had seen little foot prints in the snow perhaps from this beauty. We had three visits and each time he looked a little more inquisitive.

Today we have seen:
an elk, our first, two deer, more cranes, many groups of swans and a red necked grebe, a great find!! This afternoon a number of reindeer, just couldn't get to the camera in time and now mountain hare, perhaps mid stage of turning colour? What