A brief glimpse .... and then it was gone

 It's often the case that the briefest of glimpses of an animal are the wildlife encounters that stick in the memory. Here are three recent chance encounters, that lasted only for a few seconds

I saw something moving in the grass under some young oaks, but couldn't quite make out what it was ..... and then this magnificent jay, with its exquisite blue wing feathers, flew up into the branches. It paused for a couple of seconds and then was gone

I'd been watching this kestrel hovering and stooping along the sea cliffs near Hawthorn Dene on the Durham coast. I lost sight of it then, as I drew near, it flew up from the grass with a small mammal in its talons and disappeared over the edge of the cliff

I was walking through Auckland park in Bishop Auckland, along the edge of what must once have been a broad ditch, when this hare that had been lying low leapt up from almost under my feet and dashed away into a hawthorn thicket.

Close encounters with hares

Thursday's Guardian Country Diary describes close encounters with hares on Chapel fell, at St. John's Chapel in Weardale.

I was leaning over the wall admiring the view (and getting my breath back after a long, steep climb) when this hare appeared from behind a tussock of grass, just twenty metres away, ......

....... and I expected it to turn tail and run, but instead ......

...... it just ran straight towards me, then .... 

.... just sat and stared at me. Then it started to run towards me again, leapt onto the wall just a few feet away, then ambled off across the track, leapt into the far wall then jumped down into that pasture and disappeared again amongst the rushes. I couldn't photograph any of that because it was simply too close to me. Fortunately ..........

...... another hare appeared in more or less the same place ....

....... but a little further away, and repeated the whole performance. Once again it was too close for me to photograph on the wall that I was leaning against ..... but ....

... it stopped on the track to nibble some grasses ... 

...... giving me time to get my wits together, focus as it loped across the track ...

.......... and photograph it when it leapt onto the far wall.

If I didn't have the photographs, I'd think I was hallucinating. Hares can have that effect on people.

I'm all ears....

I don't think any animal epitomises true wildness more than a brown hare. We spotted this fine specimen in a field near Tunstall reservoir near Wolsingham in Weardale yesterday afternoon.


I'd hoped to get a little closer than this but anyone who thinks that they are creeping up on a hare, undetected, is kidding themselves.....

This one is looking at me out of the corner of one eye while it scans the field ahead with the other, and that right ear has been swivelled backwards so that it's picking up my clumsy attempts at stalking, while the left ear is listening to something else. As finely tuned a set of senses as you'll find anywhere.


As soon as it judged that I was too close for comfort it loped off and settled into the long grass, and was lost from view.