Wildlife Photographic Journals

Storm Hares

I popped out a couple of days ago to undertake a short evening session with the hares. As I left home some storm clouds were bubbling up over ahead. By the time I was half way to the site the clouds overhead had formed into a swirling black mass, punctuated with lightning and then the rain just dropped in a heavy downpour and the road along which I was travelling quickly appeared to turn into a small river. I nearly turned back home but carried on knowing that such summer storms are often fairly short-lived events. It was still deluging as I arrived at site and not surprisingly very few hares were to be seen. However, the storm passed and as soon as the rain stopped' some very soggy hares started to appear for their evening feed.

Shaking off some excess rainwater

Fortunately the sun soon then reappeared and photography conditions improved rapidly. Crossing the track or was it chasing its shadow?

I came across one hare that was busy cleaning itself. It was interesting to watch as it cleaned its front paws.Before tucking them tight against its bodyand then settling down for a snooze with its front paws resting on it hind legs so that they would not get wet and dirty again. It is glimpsing these small intimate moments of behaviour that is one of the great joys of wildlife photography for me. A pleasure that can only be gained by spending long periods in close proximity to animals.