Hare today....

It's very easy to go tramping round the countryside picking up sightings and adding to lists. Distant birds or subliminal sightings have their part but what you really need are experiences which lift your spirits. Today was certainly one of those.

We started off very early with a trip to one of our favourite reserves, Oare marshes in Kent. This is a lovely, compact reserve, a central area of pools surrounded by reeds and grassland with the tidal Swale river on one side. It can get some very nice birds and normally has lots to see. Today though it was  quiet. Even the flocks of waders on the central pools were reduced to about 50 or so godwits. 

Two families of swans seemed happy to paddle around in the marsh,

and there were lots of wrens and whitethroats declaring their territories from the bushes and overhead wires.

The star species of the reserve are the turtle doves, but even these are getting harder to find. Two were sitting on the telephone wires by the cottages and one came down to feed on some grain on a path nearby.

It was interesting seeing them next to woodpigeons. You got an idea of the size difference between them, the tiny dove next to the big, bruiser of a pigeon. Their population has crashed by over 95% in recent years, driven by being shot on migration in the Med and by habitat and food loss over here. These pockets of safety for them are becoming increasingly important.

After this we headed over to the Isle of Sheppey, across the Swale estuary but 30 minutes drive. It is a very wild area, especially in Winter, but in Summer it can be quite bucolic, with flower-strewn meadows and verges separating arable fields. 

Although we saw many marsh harriers quartering this fields the star for us was the multiple sightings of hares. It started as we were driving down a side-road and saw a brown shape lolloping through the grass.

In this one field, right next to the road, at least 4 hares were chasing each other and hiding in the long grass. A good start but they quickly disappeared and we moved on to Harty Ferry. There is a lovely old church there and a farm shop which sells eggs from the chickens pecking around in the gardens. We had a quick coffee and decided to try a path we'd not been on before, leading towards the river and eventually Shellness. 

Lots of birds were calling from the hedgerows and red-legged partridges were pottering about round the field margins, tempted in by the grain feeders marking this out as a shooting area later in the year.

Nearby another hare was eating grass and shoots with a family of pheasants and more partridges for company.

It let me get quite close before it lolloped off down the field. The next sighting was something I would never have expected.

We were slowly walking down a track, trying to find a cuckoo which had been calling from a stand of poplars. Around 30 yards ahead of us we spotted a hare sitting on the path.

Now normally, when you come upon any wild animal suddenly, especially a hare, they will firstly freeze  then quickly dash off into cover never to be seen again. Well, this one clearly hadn't read the rule book. It sat in the path staring at us whilst I fired off some shots.

As it turned I presumed it would then revert to type and dash off. Incredibly it moved, in a very relaxed manner towards us. We were both keeping as still as possible as it loped towards us.

It then got totally bizarre. The hare just kept coming down the path as if we weren't there. It paused about 20 feet away from and sat down on the path for a quick groom.

By now, I had zoomed out on my camera to get it into the shot. I started off with my 100-400mm lens at  maximum. I was now down to about 170mm but it kept on coming. Eventually we think it got to no more than 6 feet away from me. My lens was set to minimum zoom and I could only just focus on it!

Hopefully you can see in the last picture how it is staring up at me. I could hardly breathe as it seemed to be about to stand on my feet! Finally I think it realised that these two strange trees in the path were actually people and it quite calmly reversed its path and disappeared into the field margins. We could finally breathe again! 

I have never, ever had a a wild hare approach me like that. I have no idea if it is a bit like Colin the cuckoo and has become habituated to people, or was just really chilled out. As the area is a shooing estate I suspect it would not last long if it was happy to come near people so I think it was having a relaxed day! 

A superb day in a gorgeous part of the countryside. Even the eggs which we got the farm shop were top notch with our tea tonight!!