My good friend P always reminded me to take a good look around when out and about taking pics. This stood me well on a few occasions, especially when taking a decent sunset - the clouds behind can be as spectacular as the sunset in front.
On this occasion I was out to see a) which direction the sun came up (don't laugh) over Cemlyn beach, and b) to see how close to the famous Sandwich Terns I could get. The lovely G and I set out well before the young 'uns were up, and we ventured out into a lovely sunny, if somewhat blowy, morning.
The terns were already up and about. Zipping hither and yon some with, some without, a beak full of sand eel. On the way back to the roost they held up in the wind, and I tried to get some shots, but was somewhat hampered by having picked up the wrong camera body on the way out of the house.
Having enjoyed the time on the beach, we sauntered back to the car park and thought we'd just see what's going on on the other side of the headland. As we rounded a corner, G startled a large mammal. It scooted off into the undergrowth, and we started to guess as to what it might be (we didn't get much of a view). Like her, my first instinct was that it was a small deer, but I'm pretty sure there aren't any on Anglesey, at least not that part. Eventually, we got the answer as we notice a group of hares scuttling around in a nearby field. One had broken away from the main group and was snorting around in a grassy field nearby. It seemed to me that he (or she) was doing a circuit, so we headed up to the top end of the field to wait. The site we picked was perfect. We were downwind, so no noise or smells to upset the poor thing, we were on a slightly high point, but below the skyline. We waited. And after a few minutes he (or she) started the route the headed straight towards us. He (or she) stopped every so often to grub around and take stock of the field. Eventually he (or she) came close enough to get the shot above. He (or she) then wandered past and out of sight beyond a hedge. What a wonderful experience. Hares aren't the rarest creature in the world, but having said that, they aren't an everyday sight either.
Of course, we had to come back again, and again, and again. In all we probably came back about 5 times - morning and evening - and although we saw Hares again, we never got close enough to improve on an already quite decent shot.
I'm already looking forward to our next visit to Anglesey, in the hope of once again having a close encounter with Lepus europaeus.
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