Keeping perfectly still...

After such a busy day, I felt the need for a bit of peace and quiet,so I took the dogs to Castor Hanglands NNR, a wonderful nature reserve where it's very rare to see another person.

The day had started off with thick mist, but by the time I went out this had burnt back to leave a heat haze. Within a few minutes of reaching the reserve I heard my first nightingale of the year - so exciting!! Depite their name, nightingales sing thoughout the day too, but aren't as obvious. However, once learnt, the fluty, rich song is unmistakeable. You can hear it here.

All the spring migrant birds are back and I heard cuckoo, chiff-chaff, willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat and seven separate nightingales. At one point there were also three buzzards mewing overhead. I also saw my first damsel-fly of the season,a large red, and there were thousands of St.Mark's flies hovering over the long grass.

The temperature soared while we were out, and the dogs were glad of the ponds to cool off in. Just as we were heading back along a bridleway towards the car, I spotted a pair of ears in the young wheat on the other side of a hedge. The dogs were ahead of me, and must have passed within 10m of the hare, but didn't register it's scent, because the wind was blowing from the wrong direction. I suspect they were also too exhausted to chase it anyway (the advantage of old dogs)!

I'm not sure whether the hare smelt or saw us initially, but it stayed absolutely still and I was able to creep closer and get a reasonable view over the hedge towards it.Thank goodness I'd got the 300mm lens on! I didn't take many shots as I didn't want the dogs to notice that there was something interesting in the field. As I walked past on the track the hare lowered its ears and disappeared down into the crop. What a magical experience!

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