18 July 2024 : Evening Hares, West Cumbria
18 July 2024 : A humid and dark evening, so I took a stroll around the fields looking for Hares
Tonight wasn’t really a good night to look for Owls, so I thought I would see how the local Hares were doing. At first it was just the odd one in the distance, skittish Female Hares that spotted me miles away and ran for the long grass, but then I spotted one in the distance. I recognised it right away as Ernie, a big male, that I had seen last year with the tip of his ear missing, he was in the long grass on the edge of the field so using the hedge as cover I slowly edged towards him, just as I got close enough to focus in , he started running directly at me, I had the camera set up for long off still shots so I missed a lot while I rejigged my set up but managed to shoot a few as he stood directly in front of me about three feet away, panicked as he spotted me and ran off!
It was great to see him so close up, so close I could see my reflection in his eye ! He has clearly been in the wars since I last saw hime as now he has added a notch in his ear and a tear in his other ear to his list of injuries. They didnt seem to bother him as he still looked fast and fit, so fingers crossed we may yet see him next year as well.
