Haring About - 20th May 2026

I am fortunate to live in a village, Leafield that lies within an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in West Oxfordshire and is surrounded by fields and woodland, much of which  form part of a large estate called Cornbury Park. The southern border of the estate backs onto our rear garden.

Consequently there is plenty of wildlife if you know where to look and one narrow, winding and undulating lane in particular leads off the main street through the village, bisects the Cornbury Estate and forms a pleasant route which we use to access various other nearby villages and the town of Chipping Norton.

Being such a quiet rural road Mrs U often walks along it for exercise in the afternoon and regularly reports to me that she has seen a Brown Hare  and at one place in particular, an upward sloping track between woodland and an open field, adjacent to the lane, that always seems to have an attendant hare or two, quietly nibbling the grass or just squatting as they are wont to do.

I too occasionally see them when passing the same place in the car and always slow to check if any are around.

Today in the early evening I was driving Mrs U back home along the lane and as we came to the favourite spot she exclaimed  

There he is! adding he's right by the road!

Our house is but a few minutes away so having dropped Mrs U at the house I  immediately drove back to see if I could get some photos of the hare. Something I had tried before but with little success.

I held slim hopes of success as in similar situations the hare had always disappeared by the time I returned to look for it

Convinced this outcome would be no better than the times before I drove down the lane, slowing the car to a crawl a little before I drew level with the track. Ever so cautiously  I inched the car forward, now acting as a mobile hide and drew up looking at the track sloping upwards away from the road.

To my delight the hare was still there, very close to the lane exactly as Mrs U had stated. Even better it was with another hare. Two together! My car window was already open and the camera primed on the seat next to me.

Slowly I reached for the camera, careful not to make a sound and ever so slowly raised and pointed it at the nearest hare through the open window, making sure to keep myself and the camera in the dark interior of the car where I would be invisible

Would the hares sense something was not quite right and flee? This was the moment. The hares are rightfully wary as there is still shooting on the estate, deer mainly but I am sure the hares are also considered fair game. It was a tense moment and the two hares froze into immobility for a few seconds, nostrils quivering as they smelled the air but then relaxed, athough still slightly suspicious of this strange vehicle that had suddenly appeared in their orbit and began nibbling at the grass. 

I raised the camera and took some images. The click of the shutter sounded like a cannon but was in fact almost silent. I need not have worried as it could not have gone better. 

For ten minutes all was well but then for no apparent reason their innate timidity got the better of them and they moved off slightly up the track, not really alarmed more cautious, one could say and after a few more minutes moved into the field of weeds parallel to the track and were lost from view.

The naturalist Frances Pitt wrote the following 

The hare presents an interesting study in psychology.Its character is a curious mixture of extreme timidity and boldness, of rashness and suspicion, of cunning and of the most flagrant silliness

Being this close to a hare was an almost unique experience for me. So close and a superficial glance suggested its coats was a lustrous, silky, tawny brown, marginally a shade darker on its back and matching the stony red earth of the track it sat upon. But look closer and each strand of hair alternated a  black and light brown creating an impression of marbled light and shade.

I could not fail to notice three notable features of this animal. Its eyes, its ears and its nostrils. All are essential attributes for a creature that lives its entire life in the open with no protection other than its wits and physical adaptations for such a lifestyle.

Its ears are extraordinarily long and large and even act independently at times like radar scanners. Their hearing is ultra sensitive and the slightest extraneous sound will ensure the hare raises them like antennae and direct one or both in the perceived direction of concern. Every innocuous sound such as a pheasant's crow, the bark of a muntjac or a distant human voice can precipitate a raising of one or both ears to check and reassure.

At rest or nibbling the fresh green shoots of the Spring grass the hare would lower its ears until they became as one with its body, resting hem flat along its back.

Huge, their eyes seemingly bulge from their head. Tawny orange, replicating the colour of its body fur and with enormous black irises  they stare impassionately but noting every subtle movement or change in their surroundings. Unchanging familiarity is a hare's nirvana, the slightest alteration to this  will cause it to be on edge and wary.

The nostrils are wide and flared, again especially adapted for maximum oxygen intake when the hare is running at full speed.

When relaxed they move slowly, one could almost say sluggishly but once alarmed up go the ears, the body tenses then lengthens, becoming lythe and athletic as the huge hind legs propel it at incredible speed, its only means of defence, away from danger.

Over the centuries, inevitably much folklore has arisen around one of our most mystical native wild animals, one that has been known to inhabit  Britain before written history and even revered as a God, to be buried with honour during The Iron Age. 

This long association with humankind has given rise to many folk names such as  Puss, Laverock, Old Sally and Malkin. It also has a long association with the moon, spanning centuries and cultures primarily rooted in the animal's nocturnal habits, reproductive cycles and the visual appearance of a hare in the Moon's craters long before the Man in the Moon was ever thought of.

In Spring however they can be frequently seen in daylight 'boxing' in the open fields.This is not fighting between rival males but thought to be part of the hare's mating behaviour where the male courts the female and if she does not want to mate resists by hitting out at the amorous male. This behaviour and the association with the moon has given rise to the sayings Moonstruck and Mad as a March Hare.

 

Disappointed that the hares had gone so soon I looked further up the track and was delighted to see another hare feeding quietly, totally relaxed while nibbling at the tender shooted grass. I spent a further thirty minutes watching and photographing it.

In the end I put down the camera and just watched, feeling that I was very privileged to be here sat in the rural isolation of a country lane, with the wind gently swaying the trees and the intermittent sun running shadows up the track on which the hare was feeding amongst the grass.

Some of the sense of magic and mysticism that surrounds this animal seemed to impart itself to me whilst sitting in my car watching the hare, untroubled, going about its natural existence.For an hour I forgot about my human world and all the stress and anxieties of modern life that seem part and parcel of living through these times.

Nature can do this.

I  was minded of the words of Lotti Brown who wrote: 

Mysterious, swift, wild, otherworldly...the hare is one of our most cherished Countryside animals, and it's no wonder that so much folklore and meaning has gathered around her through the centuries.

There's something about a hare - not only fleet of foot, but also ephemeral, as though she slips between worlds. It's little wonder that folklore across Britain and across centuries holds the hare as a magical being, part of the Otherworld and part of ours, never fully belonging to either.

Sadly there are others who show them no such respect or appreciation and hunt them with dogs.It is illegal in Britain to do so but it is becoming an increasing problem and owners of land on which it happens are frequently threatened with violence if they seek to prevent it.

Fortunately, to my knowledge my local hares are safe from such practices but I remain vigilant.

It is so regrettable that it has to be this way.