Today, when I ventured outside mid morning, I heard one of the dogs playing with a squeaky toy – well that’s what I thought – until the toy started moving.

I quickly realised it was a leveret.

We have so many hares around the farm that at this time of the year we often come across leverets, only days old, exploring the area.

By quickly distracting the dog, we managed to move the leveret, perfectly unharmed, to the edge of the paddock – it was full of life and quickly bounced off.

It’s so lovely to see the leverets out and about.

This year we have already seen a lot of large hares scarpering about on the farm and the surrounding fields – they are such icons of the countryside and an animal, although common, that many people do not often see, so whenever I do see one I feel very lucky.