Many wildlife photographers want to get great images of hares, but are put off because they think that to do so will be extremely difficult. Actually, this is not quite true. There might just be the teeniest bit of 'bigging it up' by some wildlife photographers who want you to think that the images they got were the result of mysterious, arcane field skills gained over decades of study. Well, possibly. Maybe, or maybe it's not quite so mysterious after all. I created Wessex Wildlife to demonstrate that you can get close to wildlife and start building up your own experience and techniques.
Hares are great photographic subjects: not only are they beautiful and enigmatic, they also have lots of social interaction which makes for great action shots, they will put up with people being quite close to them and pointing big-eyed lenses at them; and they will do all this in good light. However, for most people, this is the closest they get:
Lovely, but not exactly a "frame-filler"! This hare has seen you and is letting you know that she is going to run right over the horizon and never come back. So how can you increase your chances of getting closer, getting shots and maybe seeing some photogenic activity such as 'boxing'? How can you even find them is what they do is this?
That was a bit of an excuse for a gratuitous hare image! The picture above shows a hare in her form. We usually talk about hares as being females and the scrapes that they use to hide themselves are called 'forms'. In this image you can see the mound of soil that she has pushed up to shield her from the wind. She can hunker down so far that just her eyes and ears will be above ground, allowing her to remain alert without having to stay out in the cold, wind and rain. She can also go from nought to bloody fast within a blink of an eye; so if a predator happens to find her, she can get away lickety-split.
Hares start breeding in early spring and carry on doing so until the autumn. During that time you can spot them with your binoculars sitting in small groups. We call these groups 'husks' or 'droves' if the group is larger than a few. Basically, a husk is a small group of a few hares together and a drove is bigger than that: this is rural folklore we are dealing with, if you wanted precision then you were expecting too much! Husks of hares start to come together in February. Zoologically speaking they are courtship groups. They tend to be groups of males gathered around an interesting female. So a hare-rich landscapes such as in South Wiltshire, Cranborne Chase, South Downs or bits of Norfolk and the Midlands will contain lots of these little groups across big open fields. There will usually be a favoured field: these will have very low vegetation and the hares will want to get out of the wind. So look for spring corn, recently sown fields, sheep-bitten turf and short stubbles. Then look at the bit of the field that is sheltered and you should be looking at your hares. So far, so good.
Not all hares are equal. There is a dominance hierarchy in hare society and this is reinforced with sharp claws and long teeth. watch hares for long enough and you will see individual hares leave one husk and amble over to another one. When she gets there, she may immediately bite another hare and then all the hares will be in motion: running round and round, leaping over each other, kicking out at the hare behind or biting the hare in front. So even if husks look like they are set groups of hares not moving much, be patient and wait for the action to happen. The best place to wait is between two or more husks, rather than trying to get too close to one particular husk. What you will find is that hares travel between the husks, coming past you and offering good opportunities for some nice shots. Let the hares come to you rather than trying to get too close to the hares. Most of the activity takes place at night, but also just after dawn and in the hours before before dusk.
This shows two hares moving between husks, and you can see another hare moving up the field edge in the distance, moving to join two more hares in the top right of the picture.
But wide open fields are not the only habitat. Hares use woodlands at all times of the year, but particularly in winter. They like woodlands with very little ground flora. Lots of brambles, bluebells, nettles or other thick undergrowth can hide predators and obstruct the hare's rapid escape. The beech plantations on the chalk hills around my home are great places to see hares and get some pictures that are a little bit different. The animals are harder to see and much harder to approach, but the quality of the dappled light filtered through branches and leaves can really make the image.
Dave Blake
david@wessexwildlife.co.uk
07553435396
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