HAVE you noticed that there is one creature seemingly missing from the hedgerows and fields at the moment.
I’ve not spotted a brown hare for weeks.
Perhaps there is a special location where they go in the winter, keeping away from the roadside and verges.
I often wonder just how much difference the coursing ban has made on the hare population in these parts. Last year, when the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group was holding a special one-day course to train volunteers to help it survey brown hare populations in the county, I did ask if there was any record of what had happened to the hares around Great Altcar and Formby.
Unfortunately, no-one had enough data to make a reasoned guess. And with the land roundabout all being privately owned, it was difficult for anyone to survey the area.
I asked Jane Ashley , Lancashire Biodiversity Manager for the Wildlife Trust at the time if she had any idea if the hare coursing ban had made a difference. “I agree it would be interesting to look into changes, if any, in hare populations at Altcar since the end of the Waterloo Cup coursing, but the limitations in my particular survey prevent this,� she said.
“A substantial bank of data from Great Altcar and surrounding areas would be required, from both before and after the hunting-with-dogs ban, to draw any meaningful conclusions about its local effect. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such data set.�
So, we’re none the wiser. But another month and we should see the Mad March Hares again. But where have they been in the meantime?
Music on the Moss: some solid Chicago-style blues and soul-tinged R&B from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, neighbours of Bruce Springstein and somewhat overshadowed by his success. Not to be ignored nonetheless, with some stinging guitar from Little Steven and hot harmonica from Johnny Lyon

A Great Altcar hare running for its life before coursing was banned on the West Lancashire Plain, along with the rest of Britain

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