Sounds that I had noticed only intermittently before now reached me every night and were linked in my mind with the hare’s movements: the harsh cacophony of jackdaws settling in the tops of the wood at nightfall; the reverberation of nameless wings; fragments of whistling birdsong; and the piercing call of pheasants, all growing louder as the colours of the landscape merged into one. This nocturnal medley—wild, chaotic, and disconcerting to my ears—heralded the hours where the hare would be at her most alert and active.
