If you walk softly, keep off the skyline and lay in the mud for a few hours, you can get the opportunity to catch a Hare in its natural habitat, poking its nose out of the grass.
You do have to check in the vegetated areas too though, and if you're good with your fieldcraft, you can catch the unwary beasts relaxing through a gap in the gorse
Creep round a little further and you can get a shot from the front
Duck down - don't want to be seen - sneak another shot through the undergrowth as the Hare has a go at an irritating itch. Keep the camera in silent mode to make sure you're not spotted
A noise from behind. "Psst!" "PSSSTT! Wot cho doing mate? This is Havergate Island. We're kinda used to you lot by now!"
"Oh, I see, so I don't really need to grovel in the mud?"
"Nah, not really mate, just play nice and be respectful and we won't mind you taking pics"
"Oh, great! Thanks for being so accommodating"
"Raasssspp!!"
"Oh, that's charming. Thanks a bunch. Go on, get lost if you're going to be like that"
"Hee Hee!"
I'll find a friendlier one to take pictures of then. Ahh, this is more relaxing.
Some spots are a bit difficult to get to when washing...
And the Hare was very tolerant of Mrs WJ taking a pic
But once again, as I swung the camera round....
Some of these hares clearly need lessons in manners!
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Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Lovely set of photos WJ and Mrs WJ, lovely the funny captions, well done.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Of course, there are other things to see on Havergate. Although, being the Hare event, I didn't get too far away from the Hares, there were a few other things worthy of a pic. This time of year, the gulls are settling in ready to raise their young, so there are plenty of Herring gulls around
and Oystercatchers were there in abundance too
Little birds like this Pipit
and the Reed Buntings Mrs WJ saw, were plentiful
Of course, if small birds are your thing, they don't come much smaller that a Goldcrest - they love picking round the gorse bushes
and Redshanks make the most of the mud as the tide drops
People are often surprised at the number of owls, harriers and kestrels you can see on the island, but you don't have to look too hard to see why they like hunting here - lots of these little chaps scurrying around!
Just to finish off, OK, I know, you're all fed up of them, but honestly, they're irresistible. Though at least one fellow photographer was complaining about a particular hare's tendency to settle down inside his minimum focus :-)