Mad World

The skies are constantly dark with snow heavy clouds, the sea is battering the coast and the north easterly wind bites the skin. It's hard to believe that we are days away from April a time of year one would expect lambs in the fields, daffodils in bloom, ponds full of frogspawn and a whole host of creatures and creepy-crawlies waking up to the summer after a long winters slumber. Seems like many of these have had to endure a rather forced lie-in. However I did manage to find common toad, common frog, smooth newt and great crested newt earlier in the week whilst at work. I will get some artistic amphibian shots this year, when it warms up. Reluctant to get soaked and blown away on the cliff-tops or travel far in the poor dull weather, I have made the farmland which surrounds my house my own once again, rekindling the childhood spirit which originally got me hooked on natural history. A very real sign of spring was present today however despite the mad march weather and that was the sight of mad march hares, one of nature's super spring spectacles.

Boxing is generally the result of a female warding off a males sexual advances, by rearing up and boxing him with her forepaws. This is usually seen in unreceptive females which are near oestrus but not quite ready to mate. Each female at this time of year is guarded by a male or a small number of males (as seen in the photo 3). These will remain with the female and generally stay within 5 metres from her daytime form (resting place). Males naturally chase and fight each other for breeding rights. We tends to see dominant males guarding near-oestrus females and attacking sub-ordinate males, thus having a higher breeding success rate. Subordinates are bitten and chased off, although boxing is unusual between males.

The term "mad march hare" is somewhat misleading as hares often mate as early as January, with births between February and October, brown hares have about 3 litters per year. These tend to consist of 1-4 leverets (young hares), early and late litters tend to have lower numbers of leverets, possibly linked to female condition and food availability. Interestingly females occasionally exhibit superfetation in which two different aged embryos are present together in the uterus. Prior to giving birth female tend to become shy and retire away from male attention, staying close to the place in which they want to give birth for about two weeks.

Unfortunately the pheasant and partridge culture of the region means foxes are controlled quite regularly (although my own scat counts reveal populations remain stable with territories more or less saturated in the area). This control probably helps the hares as foxes are their key predator in Britain, and have been shown to limit population growth and productivity. In extreme cases foxes can predate 80-100% of leverets in a season. I managed to find a fox skull recently which gave me a good opportunity to take a closer look at the species structure.

A bit of simple maths (Cough) using the Lynch equation and we can sex red fox skulls.

D = (2.114 x GL) - (1.874 x PO) - 27.478

I am not much of a fan of maths so I will get to the point the skull is from a male. Other ways of telling is the presence of a prominent sagittal crest, which is suggestive of a slightly older male. However the good condition of the teeth suggests it was not that old at the age of death, probably c.12 months or more. Red fox skulls tend to have narrow muzzles and longer canines in comparison to domesticated dogs (the only real confusion species in Britain). They also show a concave upper surface to the post-orbital process (bone which sticks out above the eye), this is convex in dogs.

Another hare predator which is prominent within this region is the buzzard, although perhaps less of a problem to hares than foxes. Common buzzards will no doubt take leverets, as well as rabbits. One was wheeling around in the snow above the hares, but certainly locally these buzzards tend not to close enough to be photographed. Although I did manage to see one with an extremely young rabbit, a lagomorph similar to the brown hare but more productive in terms of breeding and equally one which starts to mate early in the year.

The little owl seems to be getting a bit more approachable, but with the almost imminent onset of the breeding season, I will avoid any close interactions with these birds which are easily spooked and can abort the nest site early in the season prior to the egg/nestling period. Always nice to see this species though. Hopefully we will remain snow free and these birds will persist into the spring. I have been looking for other nest sites as undoubtedly other birds will be in the area but have only found jackdaws thus far.

       

It wasn't only the hares which were fighting in the fields today but also the male pheasants were getting a little shirty with one another.