Fur and feather

Let's begin with a couple of apologies:

1. We're not done with hare posts just yet. I'm sorry. Buckle up;

2. I have been quite restrained with my punning of late (no, really), but I don't think I can hold back the groundswell of awful puns for much longer. I am so sorry.

As we reach the end of March, the stubble field behind our house is pretty much on borrowed time. In an area where about half the island's income comes from agriculture, that land is going to be ploughed, rolled and sowed some time soon. So with a sense of contemplative resignation, we have been enjoying the Brown Hares and their antics, because come the plough, they will be harder to spot, even if they take the tramlines. Once the field is rolled and sown, I doubt the hares will have anywhere to hide, although they do have form in this regard. Then it will be a case of waiting for the new green growth of the crop to once more tempt the hares back, providing them with both food and cover.

Over the weekend, there were a few long distance photo opportunities. Some in wonderful afternoon light.

This hare ran from the field at the back of the house, through our garden, across the track and under the fence of the field at the front of the house, all before I could bring a camera to bear. I just wasn't quick enough despite what the fable had tortoise.

Don't you just hate it when your hare sticks up like that?

Backlit hare

Roughly combed hare

Short front, back and sides, but wet it first

Then from the sofa on Monday afternoon, we were idly watching a group of four hares, which I think were a female, a mate-guarding male, a potential interloper male and an unidentified straggly hare. Eventually, one of these animals began to edge across the stubble field towards us. Megan was busy reading, and not particularly receptive to my running commentary, but that changed when the hare popped through the fence at the rear of the garden.

This time I was ready with camera in hand, and although I was photographing through windows, some recent lashing rain had given them a thorough clean.

Autofocus struggled to keep up with a rapidly approaching target

I should point out that I was using a DSLR camera rather than a small compact. This is the camera which I mainly use for dragonfly work, as it has a 300mm prime focus lens (no zoom function), enabling me to fill the frame with a large dragonfly from about 1.5 metres away. Worse than that, because it's not dragonfly season and I occasionally try to photograph distant birds, there was also a x1.4 converter attached, making it a 420mm lens. Aaaarghh!

Obviously, the hare did not know that, and in my excitement I had forgotten such small details. So by the time the hare finally came to a halt in the wildflower bed, it was actually [sobs] too close. The below image is not cropped.

Bed hare

Slightly cropped hare

As I have been typing this post, the local farmer has finally begun the job of ploughing the stubble field. So instead of four Brown Hares to watch, we have a huge flock of gulls, all eager to see what wonders the blades have revealed. Megan's already checked each individual bird, and has so far identified four species: Black-headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed. At least, that's what she told me, but then I am quite gullible.