brown hare
Spring happenings
As with the rest of the country, spring arrived very early indeed with flowers blooming a good 10 days earlier than usual. I love spring. It’s my favourite season by far. As we emerge from the winter gloom and the days lengthen we at last feel that we have time on our hands to actually do stuff! Late April through to late June invariably finds me getting up very early to shoot dewy flowers or bird and hare activity on the marshes. Wood anemones and bluebells are only around for a short time so I try to make the most of them and set about photographing them at first light. Why so early? Several reasons. The light is soft, wind almost non-existent and the countryside as a whole is much quieter, human-wise anyway, allowing you to experience the dawn chorus. After a few hours photography I pack up and go home, just when everyone else is getting up and going to work!
This first image of a wood anemone was taken at 07.20 hrs at a local nature reserve called Cromer’s Wood where I have been assistant warden since it’s conception in 1990. I had this shot in mind and so it was ‘simply’ a matter of looking for the right specimen. If only you could see me dashing up and down the pathway, bending down, laying down, searching! As the sun rose, I shielded the flower from the sun to retain detail and also to obtain this contradiction of hues of the coolness of the anemone with the warmth of the background. I used a wide aperture of f4 to throw everything except for the lip of the flower out of focus with the resulting shutter speed being 1/25th sec. The same technique was also used for the bluebell image, several days apart but along the same path.
Wood anemone
Bluebell
Prior to the above image being made, I visited a beechwood just a few minutes away to get some pictures of the rising sun bursting through the trees illuminating this swathe of bluebells.
Bluebells in beechwood
I deliberately chose not to add an ND Grad to the image, below, since I didn’t want any detail in the trees. As I composed it I thought it had a rather heavenly, dreamlike quality so left as it is.
To round off the session in this particular wood I shot this young bracken surrounded by the bluebells.
Bracken and bluebells. Nikon D300, 200mm, iso 200, 1/40th sec. f5.6, Manfrotto tripod.
Our earliest flowering woodland orchid, the early-purple.
Another early morning flower shoot. This time of a common dog violet. I just can't get enough of them dewy mornings!
I do photograph other things other than flowers….honestly! A few evenings were spent laying close to a rabbit warren in the hope of capturing the youngsters. I only had fortune on my side the first evening but will continue to shoot (pardon the pun!) them throughout the spring and summer.
Rabbits outside warren
Young rabbit. Nikon D300, 300mm f2.8, 1.4x teleconverter, iso 400, 160th sec. f5.6, beanbag, full camo clothing.
Male pheasant displaying. It doesn't matter how often I photograph this behaviour, I just can't help myself. Although an introduced species, I cannot imagine the countryside without them. It would be like losing the cuckoo though sadly, if one were to disappear, it would most likely be the latter.
Cock pheasant displaying
Although suffering a rapid decline, corn bunting's are still, thankfully, very common throughout the North Kent Marshes.
Warm days followed by cold nights are providing wonderfully atmospheric conditions in which to shoot in at the moment and since the mist reduces the sun’s harshness for another half an hour or so, this in turn extends my photography a little longer. This brown hare was captured a few days ago as it nibbled on some grass.
Brown hare at sunrise. Nikon D300, 300mm f2.8, iso 800, 1/2500th sec. f5.6, beanbag.
These yellow flag irises were spotted a few days prior to shooting them and was fortunate enough to have great cloud formations, something which simply cannot be guaranteed. Positioning the tripod was the biggest problem here with two of the legs in water and another at quite a peculiar angle in which to move the camera slightly overhead. I was careful not to leave it unattended through fear it may well end up in the drink! Due to the exposure range I used two ND Graduated filters. A 0.3 (1 stop) at a 45 degree angle covering the sky and ditch and a 2 stop (0.6) covering just the sky since this was brighter than the water in the ditch.
Yellow flag iris at sunrise
It’s easy to for us to take this season and all that it offers for granted thinking “well, there’s always next year to photograph them.” As a recent personal event reminded me, there may not always be a “next year” so we have to grasp every opportunity and, indeed, make a concerted effort to enjoy this very special time of the year.
Birds and hares
Readers of this blog will know that for the last 5 months I have been regularly feeding birds at a feeding station a few miles away from where I live. On the edge of the field are a number of old hazel trees that hang low and heavy with catkins. There’s only a window of a week at the most, after which they start to turn brown so everything needs to be crossed in the hope of getting good weather! I got lucky and spent several enjoyable mornings in my hide photographing the birds as they perched a few metres away prior to coming down to the feeders. Aside from the usual suspects in the form of blue, great, coal and marsh tits, the star of the show turned up on a number of occasions, being the goldfinch.
A very early start was needed since the site was in shadow after 12 so I would be there half an hour or so after sunrise when the light was just gorgeous and the birds more active than later on. Ordinarily, I would use a semi-permanent wooden hide, they are warmer and don’t flap around, but for this I used a dome hide from WWS which can be moved around the site as the light changes. They are so light that they most certainly need pegging down! They are great for the job though.
Goldfinch. Nikon D300, 300mm f2.8, iso 400, 1/800 sec f4.
The North Kent Marshes are steadily coming alive with the wonderful displays of lapwing, just as the many ducks and waders head north to their breeding grounds.
Marsh sunrise
On just one of several mornings spent looking for boxing hares, where there was quite a bit of chasing and boxing, I came across this individual who happened to pose close and long enough for me to grab a couple of shots. The light could have been better but you take what you can get when they stand up like this.
The light was extremely flat on this particular morning but there was so much chasing going on that it was great just to be there, watching. I followed this individual through my lens as it moved across the flooded marsh, avoiding as much as it could, having to jump over the water. I liked the connection between it and wetland and waited until it was in silhouette. Producing it as a black and white panoramic image simplified the composition further.
Marsh hares
I haven’t done much brown hare photography lately, and since this is the season of the mad march hare, I thought I’d post a selection of images taken over the last few years.
All were taken on the North Kent Marshes, either using my car as a hide or on-foot-chance- encounters. Invariably, the greatest success comes from knowing specific areas they inhabit, then returning time and again, though as I witnessed on a number of occasions, the most memorable experiences can be those you see by sheer chance.
On specific areas of the marshes, I can be sure of at least seeing them but due to its sheer size, totalling many 1000s of acres, having them close enough for photography is another matter and although I own a 4×4, at this time of the year, it can be so wet and boggy that frankly you’d need an amphibious vehicle! So, there is nothing for it other than to sit and wait. Some mornings, nothing, whereas on others the activity seems to be everywhere and never ending. It’s the latter of course that keeps you coming back for more and it’s surprising just how quickly you forget those long, fruitless waits.
Preparing to jump
Very often at this time of the year, the marsh would be so flooded that the hares would have no choice other than to run across or jump over the water.
Three Wise Hares
The males, or jacks, will box each other to obtain dominance, or with females, jills, prior to mating.
I have only ever witness ‘proper’ boxing twice, where they stand toe to toe for long periods, trading blows. The image below was such an occasion when I decided to take a walk across the marsh, keeping to the long grass and wearing just sufficient camouflage not to stand out too much. I rounded a bend and there below me were two hares boxing. They were so engrossed in what they were doing they never noticed me. It lasted well over 20 seconds, without a break, fur flying in all directions. Once it was over, they simply dropped down on all fours and started nibbling the grass, as if nothing ever happened.
About Robert Canis
Robert Canis is a professional photographer specialising in the natural world.
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