I was just about to take some compostables outside when I spotted a hare lolloping towards me, out in the potager... it then turned down towards the big rhubarb and out of my site.
We do get hares from time to time... usually in the field next door or out in our watermeadow.
But always too fleeting, or too fast...
"Compost be damned!" I thought, as I grab camera and carefully open latch on back door...
and lo, the lievre comes lolloping back round the corner of the wall.... and towards me... WTH!
So I start taking photos as it comes right up to the grassy side of the Woodchipio®, pausing only to taste the grass... it was a wet hare... needed a blowdry?
It would have come via the roadside fence... so had probably been in the Winter wheat or barley on the other side of the road...
Until this morning, I hadn't really appreciated just how big they really are...
the normal view being, always, from a distance... with little to give scale!
It was as large, possibly larger than Baron our small black panther....
as long in the body, the head was half as big again as Baron's...
and the hoooooge ears, amazing....
it may not have weighed Baron's eight kilos, but I think it was possibly not far off!
So, please... share in my "wet hare" moment....
I rather like the punkish topknot!
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| This was the closest it came... and I couldn't fit it in the frame! |
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| This, however, was what I thought would be my closest view... the inspection hatches for the fosse filter bed! Was I about to be surprised... it suddenly turned towards me just as I had zoomed out to get a better shot... so, I got this... |
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| Terrible picture.... ears all cut off, but still somewhat magical to me! |
After having a nibble of the grass along the edge of the Woodchipio®, it turned and lolloped away towards the potager... much the way it had come... but, as it went... it did the Mad March Hare routine....
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| I had zoomed back out enough... but it decided to keep exploring.. so off it went! |
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| This is a more normal "hare shot"... going away!! As it lolloped it showed a clean pair of heels... but muddy feet! |
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| Then... it stopped, sat on its haunches and did a bit of "shadow boxing".... |
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| Followed by getting really "wild" with its opponent... standing on tiptoe... and really throwing those punches!! |
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| And then away it went.... much in the opposite direction to which I saw it arrive... |
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| Although it may look to be in the classic "hare at speed" pose... it is, still, just lolloping along... |
.... and, after this last shot, it stayed around for about five more minutes.... having a nibble here, a nibble there... not, seemingly, worried by being near habitation!
So, an Easter Monday Mad April Hare came to visit.......
5 comments:
How fabulous! I've never managed to get a shot of 'my' orchard hare!!
WOW! Excellent spot and pics. Exciting! I rememver seeing many more hares as a youngster.
I have often seen hares running through the vines near us but we have never had such a friendly visitor in the garden. Such great photographs! Amelia
Susan, yes.... not what I normally see out of the window... the second picture was the closest I thought it would come and then bound away... it is my usual animal shot!
"Going away, going away!"
But, the only way you will get a shot at the orchard is to borrow either my tent-affut avec chaise, or the mountain man outfit [dodgy if you make a sudden movement while your "ancient one" is tending his land... it might kill him!]... and then sit and wait.... and wait.... and wait.... and wait. This was a lucky shot, I saw the hare arrive... and the camera with the BIG lens was close to hand!!
It didn't get disturbed... as I wrote, it was lolloping around and stayed for about seven minutes... it may well be back!!
Gaynor, thank you... rare for me these days to have two consecutive posts, let alone two in the same month! Yes, there used to be many more.... loss of habitat and changing farming methods are to blame for the hares' demise.... yes, they are hunted, but not that much...
however, go to North Yorkshire in the Dales and parts of Norfolk and Suffolk and you will still see them in number... a North Norfolk friend of my brother posted some pix of Easter Monday's boxing hares yesterday.
But go to the Lincolnshire Wolds, or the Brecks near Thetford, where the hedges have been ripped up and the fields joined into one huge, easily managed monoculture and you won't see one!!
The habitat is no longer suitable... that is why Susan's orchard has one... drive further along the road towards Boussay and it is all small plots and hedges... perfect environment.
Amelia, thanks... the reason it was here was on this occasion by chance, I think.... we have "Winter Wheat" or similar on two sides this year... that is why it is so wet, it has ploughed through the wet wheat... when I saw it first it was coming from the road side of our patch, so had probably come downhill through the crop.
I was getting ready to slip out of the door when it reappeared... It would be nice to see it become like Susan's orchard hare.... but I doubt it.
On the other hand, it may be a regular visitor already... we've plenty of long grass for it to lay up in... and we do see them in the meadow. It is just that we don't spend 24/7 looking out of the window!!
Only the trail cameras show us what else is around! And there, looking through hundreds of identical pictures to spot the change takes almost as much time as it takes to look out of the window!
Lovely photos.
We had a hare running backwards and forwards in our garden one morning in the middle of April. Hugo and Daisy had ringside seats for the show from the bedroom window. We were watching from the bed, mugs of tea in hands so no cameras available.
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