Easter Bunny's Big Essex Brother

If you are a little tired of seeing the brightly-coloured commercial version of the Easter Bunny at every turn, here's a little respite.  Here on Wallasea, we are almost deafened by skylark song and blinded by the flash of yellow wagtails ;  call me odd,you wouldn't be the first,but the thing that gives me the biggest thrill is to catch sight of one of the big, brown hares lolloping across the marsh or disappearing into the crops. (Last weekend we saw two together!)  As the rape plants rocket, ablaze with colour, young leverets play hide and seek with me as I go along the road to the east end of the island, but when the crops are absent hares can often be seen loping across the saltmarsh or along the field margins.
The European Hare (Lepus europaeus),or the European Brown Hare, is symbolic of the British countryside, but has become increasingly rare and it is second only to the water vole ( which they share Wallasea with) as the British mammal which has shown the greatest decline during the past century.The reasons for this decline are not entirely clear, but intensification of agriculture has certainly been a major factor. They were possibly introduced to Britain by the Romans, who we know were also on Wallasea island at one time, by archaeological finds of the red hill remains of salt works on the south and east.
Hares are renowned for their phenomenal powers of acceleration to 45mph, being bigger and 'leggier' than rabbits, yet they have a habit of ‘sitting tight’ to the ground when a predator approaches. I was surprised to find out,they do not live in burrows as rabbits do, but make grassy nests on the ground . This obviously makes them vulnerable, but as our project develops they will have huge, undisturbed areas of grazing marsh and grassy seawalls on which we hope they will thrive, as they seem to be doing to date.
Hares do not hibernate, or store appreciable amounts of fat in their bodies and so need a constant food supply throughout the year - does that make  you envious during this season of chocolate fest? This healthy hare diet can only be provided by landscapes rich in biodiversity. Their ancestral homes of past aeons provided a diversity of grass and herb species maturing in succession throughout the year. Obviously they have a taste for salty marshland plants locally, as I have seen them race across the upper marsh on the developing Allfleet's (Defra) Marsh.
So if you have hunted all your eggs, the Easter Bunny has surpassed himself in your household for another year and you really need to walk off that chocolate, why not come down to the Wallasea Island Wild Coast and see if you can see a bigger bunny? Happy Easter!

If you'd like to learn more about hares, and support another worthwhile cause, take a look at The Hare Preservatiuon Trust website - www.hare-preservation-trust.co.uk