You know you get up early in the country when…

[Istheparsleygrowing654]

The dogs are still asleep when you leave the house

You scare pheasants roosting on fence posts and tiny birds drinking from puddles as you walk along.

@TheHillsIsLonely OoooOOOooooo that really is quite the collection!
Thanks for sharing! 😍

@TheHillsIsLonely that's lovely.

I've had a barn owl fly parallel to the car, but that was towards dusk.

Dusk - or late evening, anyway - can, in early summer, be a great time to go out spotting hares. They're very visible in the young crop

We are not really remote, OP. It is definitely 'proper countryside' but we live on the edge of a village and can drive to a city in about 30-40 minutes.

When coming across wildlife, livestock and even other people's pets very early or very late in the countryside, it often seems like I am an intruder in their time and space. Sometimes they even look at you in surprise or puzzlement, as if they are not expecting a human around then. Certainly with the deer, it almost felt like we were witnessing a secret gathering. I'm used to seeing deer in herds around here but that felt different. All perhaps a little fanciful, I know.

I love spotting hares too, Edith. Thanks for reminding me that I can share another one:

On the school run, (7.30/8am, not actually very early in this case), driving along a very quiet lane through farmland and always slowing right down when approaching a certain field gate because there are often hares in that field, gateway or just sitting there in the lane in a little group. Sometimes being very, very lucky and spotting two 'boxing' across the field.

You have the best of both worlds in that case
TheHillsIsLonely

I know exactly what you mean about intruding on the hidden night time lives of wild creatures.

When going to feed the horses in winter, I interrupt fifty or so tiny birds which drink from semi frozen puddles in the drive, and they all scatter in different directions.

I absolutely love coming across hares too. They seem to live such mysterious lives.

The mist still sits on the loch.

For those of you who love your hares you will adore this series (if you haven't listened already!)...
Each episode is short so you can listen to it all at once if you have a chunk of time, or an episode at a time... Either way prepare for me to be your new favourite mumsnetter 😁
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m00268yv?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Just to mention the book of the week podcasts don't stay around as long as other programmes, so grab it asap.
Your hare appreciation self will be thrilled.

Thank you so much for this recommendation!

Noted! Thank you so much. Planning to listen to it this evening.

I had lost track of this thread. I'm just catching up and I'm feeling all nostalgic. Thank you for the link @CleopatrasBeautifulNose 💕

I listened to this today.
Thankyou so much for the recommendation it's a lovely tale.

This little video isn't from my own area but came up last week on the main BBC News website. I've just tracked it down again in case any of our hare and deer fans didn't see it:
Hare filmed playing in the snow with deer near Goole - BBC News