Here's my wildlife report.
Yesterday I was hanging out the washing when I hear a strange chuntery-growly noise behind me. I looked round and all I saw was a hare, and didn't think it had anything to do with him because it was too low in pitch for an animal that size. Back to hanging the washing and there's the noise again. I look round again and this time there's three hares chasing each other all around, boxing, and one attempted ... uh ... bonk. And the noise. That's the noise they make when they're feeling feisty, and they were so feisty they didn't care that I was just a few feet away, oh no!
This morning out of my office window I've been watching an epic stand-off between a hare and a crow (hooded crow). I presume there was a leveret (baby hare) somewhere (my cat has already brought one home this year
), in fact I saw the hare return to the same spot in the field more than once, and so did the crow. It kept "buzzing" the hare, and the hare kept chasing it around, leaping up at it, standing on its hind legs to keep it at bay. At one point a second crow joined in, and I thought that they were going to succeed in wearing the hare out and that it, too, would become crows' breakfast. But second crow lost interest, and first crow eventually decided that there was easier meat elsewhere. And hare is now resting, presumably keeping little one warm.
Pictures of different hares, same field, probably grandparents to today's wee hero ... (the blob in the foreground of photo 3 is my garden fencepost).