A Hare of a Tale

For three weeks I looked for them, under every shrub, tree and rock and all I found were their tracks.  Their tracks were everywhere you looked,  you couldn’t miss them. This doesn’t include all the time I’ve spent literally in my own backyard all these years, all those hours to find that darn white rabbit. In my backyard it’s the White-tailed Hare, in Yellowstone it’s the Snowshoe Hare, either way, they turn white in the winter and have eluded my lens. They are gorgeous all dressed for winter. I got desperate so at the end of our trip, resorted to checking out our secret spot.

Sure enough, Jake’s sharp eyes found me not one, but two of these elusive bastards! But if you notice, the suckers aren’t white! What is it with me and these darn, cute, sweet, shy turkeys! Heck, this one was barely sitting in snow so you know it’s winter. I’m tellin ya, they have it out for me.

This one was out in the open, if you don’t include the conduit pipe to its left and cable in the foreground. In -8 temps (and a nasty bitter wind), I worked up closer and closer to the hare to use the isolating power of the 600mm to eliminate those manmade items. I got to 16′, MFD, and was finally able to get a couple of clicks off before it moved five more inches so the pipe was now coming out its ass, visually that is. Even though I was skunked, again, I’ll be out again in a day looking for tracks in the fresh snow, with snowshoes under foot, for this sucker.

Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS / 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film