Some more Bunnies

Looking around the wildlife photographic community, you don’t seem to see much in the way of Rabbits – not quite sure why as I think they are photogenic and certainly have a certain ‘cute’ factor about them.  This week I decided to re-visit a Rabbit warren I went to last week and again, with a lot of patience, managed to come away with some decent images as well as a bit of an insight into their lives. I approached them in the same way as last week and sat in the same spot downwind and waited. This week, remembering how my arms ached somewhat after holding the 500 lens despite on the monopod, I decided to use my camera bag where lens and camera nicely balanced while I waited. Again, it was around 30 minutes or so before the first head popped out of of one of the many burrows and again, it was one of the younger ones who spent about 15 minutes watching me, presumably, checking me out to see if I was a threat.  Eventually, after much noise twitching, it went about its way and started feeding.  An obviously older Rabbit that came out of another hole, didn’t seem so certain, obviously a bit more of a cautious veteran and after sniffing the air a few times decided to go back inside. The image right shows my set up and on the right hand side of this photo, just before the clearing and  below the final tree you can see one of the Rabbits at the typical distance they were from me, although some, like the one below, was closer.  You can also see on the bottom right one of the many stinging nettles that were all around me, not to mention a few biting insects that are now appearing with the warm weather.  Click on the image for a larger view.

Sniffing the air to check if it’s safe

I wasn’t the only one bothered by the insects – you can see a few around its head

After a while, even the older Rabbits came out and , like the one below, chased away the younger ones for the best feeding spots - in this case some leaves from low branches which it was just able to reach.  One of the reasons I have been watching and photographing these Rabbits is because of the chances of Foxes paying a visit – at this time of year they will have hungry mouths to feed and these Rabbits, especially the inexperienced young ones, would be a large part of their diet.  I will likely continue to spend a few more weeks yet watching these Rabbits, who knows what other opportunities may arise, even if no Foxes don’t turn up it’s quite interesting just watching the Rabbits and their behaviour and of course, they’re great as a photographic challenge.

This little one seemed to enjoy itself by just running around