How and Where - Final Part 4

Question 7 ~ I communed with a hare

Look at this lovely big hare I spotted from a quiet farm track, just over the border in Wiltshire. The line of trees on the horizon is a busy main road.

Many people think hares are rare, an endangered species, because they never see them. They never see them because they walk footpaths with dogs or wear brightly coloured jackets or hats, or talk as they walk.
Hares are in fact numerous in rural areas.


This is a favourite spot of mine, and because I often saw hares in this field, I took the camera along and waited patiently. After a short while this hare came and sat with me. Look what happened next, a few quiet patient minutes later ...

The hare communed with me

It just turned round and sat looking at me. Hares rely on sound first before vision, hence the big ears, and cannot see as far as they can hear. I was sat unmoving in my car (that is the edge of the wing mirror on the right of the frame), so the hare would not have much sound to locate me with, so I believe that we made eye contact. It stayed there for a long time, and the hare sat long enough for me to change from binoculars to camera.

When I am out in my wheelchair I believe I come closer to nature's inhabitants that I did when walking. Horse riders say the same; that animals and birds react cautiously to walkers, but are not frightened off by horses walking along, nor with the riders if they are quiet. It is the same in my wheelchair which has a quiet motor, whether in my garden or further afield.

Another blessing of disability, to compensate for the physical abilities lost, to add to the blessing of time to do these things.