Mating fight with coffee

Like every hunter, I love spending time outdoors in our hunting ground. I love watching sunrise and sunset, breathe the fresh, fresh air, walk for hours in the woods, meadows, fields and be part of nature.

When I live in the countryside, I am lucky that I do not have to go hunting to have it all at my fingertips. I have seen many things from my garden, moose going to feed to a nearby abandoned orchard, roe deer caring for their offspring, mating season of pheasants, or wild boars, which, slowly passed from the nearby forest to a cornfield. However, i will remember one thing which i saw last Saturday for a  very, very long time. Scroll down to the next part.

Hare in Poland has many nicknames. It’s a ‘sleepyhead’, a ‘cat’, a ‘blindman’ and many more. Of course, these are just a few of the most popular expressions of hare, and even each Polish region also has its own local terms. In the past, hunts for hares were normal and the number of ‘cats’ was up to 300. Nobody was surprised, they were hunted to have a full larder after the season, and the hare meat was never wasted. Hares had been seasoned on hunter farms and in their friends homes. They often went to cities, seasoning on balconies, and then appear on a table during Christmas in the form of pate.

Spring is a special time, because hares have mating season. Mating begin in January or February and last until the end of August. It is not easy to observe them, because from late spring they can hide their mating among lush vegetation. Sometimes, however, during mating, we can notice what we call in polish a ‘wedding  races’ that often end with scratching, jumping, or spectacular hares fights.

Today’s hunting grounds  are not good for hares. Mechanization, chemization, large-scale cultivation, pressure of predators, lack of fields balks or shrubs. Therefore, today the view of the hare in the hunting unit is very pleasing to the eye.

Those who are lucky can observe so called ‘wedding races’ when go out into the hunting unit. This is not a common view and it is impossible to predict a place where we can see it. I wonder, how lucky you must be to see such mating happen just behind your fence ?!

When I was making my morning coffee, I did not expect that I would be so lucky! As always, after making a cup of coffee, I went to the terrace windows to take a look at the fields and the forest, checking if the familiar roe deer came out to feed at dawn. Roe deer stood in the distance, and just behind my fence, as if nothing had happened, the mating fights had place. At the beginning, there was a group of 5 hares, but just after a while, as if from nowhere appeared the next two. Scroll down to the next part.

This is how, sipping my morning coffee, a beautiful and hard to see spectacle of nature appeared in front of my eyes. Watching their fights I knew that the hunting management in our hunting club is very well conducted. The fox reduction and reintroduction of a hare that took place years ago brings noticeable results. I saw it during spring game inventorization, and now I watch it right behind my own fence.

I do not know what a small chance there is to be able to watch the mating fights from my own terrace during the morning coffee. Considering how big our hunting units, I do not know if it would even be a thousandth of a percent of chance. However, the chance that the person who sees this is a hunter who has a hunting blog is like winning in a lottery. Should I play a lottery? Probably I could, but knowing my luck in such games I would not hit even smallest price. But I am lucky for views such as the one I share with you.

Why am I so lucky? One hunter told me, that what we do for hunting and nature comes back to us. Therefore, maybe nature repays for my hunting work and it is thanks to this that I can admire such views during  my morning coffee. If yes, then I can not wait for my tomorrow coffee!

Happy hunting!