The worm turned
8 days ago
Or rather exit Weasel stage left, pursued by Rabbit.
I’ve seen battles between Rabbits and Weasels before, not quite what I’ve always been told about Rabbits freezing upon the sight or smell of a Weasel, but a full-on punch-up.
This morning, it was more of a retreat at speed. The Weasel dodging along the ditch, trying desperately to evade bunny – surprising how fast the little-legged Weasel can move, when incentivised!
Needless to say, Rufus broke-up the party.
Leverets
134 days ago
The good thing about walking a pointer is that you find all sorts of stuff that normally you’d miss. It’s a good reason for carrying a camera all the time and now I have the iPhone I do like to take that with me – it’s a lot smaller than my SLR.
However, because of the miserable weather we’re having, I didn’t take either today. Though the Pentax SLR is water-proofed to a certain extent, I still couldn’t be bothered today, so missed out on snapping three leverets crouching next to a form in the long grass.
There were two adult Hare nearby, so I guess one was the doe (the jack has no part in rearing his offspring) but I was surprised to find three leverets in one place, as the doe having given birth, will then move the young to separate forms within her muese, but they were still very young.
Indications of how bad the weather has been, are that the Ebor Festival at York racecourse and our local agricultural show were cancelled this year – Gargrave Show has only been cancelled twice before in it’s entire history and that was twice during the 2nd world war, but not because of the weather.
Aquatic Hare
284 days ago
Every now and then you see rather amusing incidents that take wild animals completely by surprise, and seem to wrench them from their normal physical composure.
The duck landing on ice, that really has no business being there, cats falling off things and my dog (actually his Dad did it as well) falling over after finding himself asleep on his feet, that sort of thing.
However, this is not the case with the Rabbits around here and swimming. Now, I’m not saying they’re doing it recreationally, more likely something to do with their peace and quiet being disturbed by my wanderings, but this afternoon a Hare really took the biscuit.
I was just wondering whether it was worth the surety of getting wet whilst crossing the beck, which is in spate after the recent heavy rain, to do the long low walk across the pastures (plenty of new lambs around) when a Hare shot across in front of me. It completed a huge leap from a (now) low bank, half way across and proceeded to erm lepus-paddle at some speed and in a strong current, to the other bank. Without missing it’s stride it shot-off over the horizon. Rufus and I just stood there and watched with our collective mouths wide open in amazement.