Friday, 19 February 2021

Spring is in the Hare

Every year, I spend hours around suitable fields trying to photograph the local Brown Hares boxing, and for one reason or another, every year I never get anything I'm really happy with. Usually they only box when they are far away from me on the other side of a field or are facing the wrong way, but I persevere.

The Nunnery Lakes Reserve adjoins the Shadwell Estate which has a good population of hares, and in the last couple of weeks they have become more obvious and with increadingly spring-like temperatures in the last few days, have become rather more frisky than they were during the recent cold snap. 

This morning I headed out on my daily walk around the reserve, and as the wind had dropped, I headed straight to the best hare field, and waited. At first a couple of pairs of ears were just visible over the brow of the field, and after another half an hour, the first couple of hares came closer over the brow and looked quite settled. It was only when two more hares joined the party that the first chasing around started and eventually two had a proper boxing match, luckily I had been following the correct couple of hares in the viewfinder and then kept my finger on the shutter while they had their bout, before one conceded defeat and ran off. There's no finesse when it comes to boxing, it seems to be close your eyes, flail your arms around and hope you land a blow!