For years Norfolk photographer Sue Wood hunted a ghost. This ghost had been seen in her north-west corner of the county any number of times, but she’d never been able to capture it through the lens.
But this was no headless horseman, or ghoulish lady in white; this ghost was a hare, specifically a rare blue or leucistic hare, whose pale colour makes it stand out like a spectre on a dark night.
A friendly local farmer had given Sue the run of his farm for her photography and had mentioned the blue hares to her. They had been seen occasionally, but over the course of six or seven years Sue had never even glimpsed one.
One of Sue’s photographer acquaintances, who used to come and take pictures on the farm, narrowed the search down when said he had seen and photographed them on a particular field. And then last autumn…
'I was walking down a lane and I saw a brown hare - and then this ghost hare appeared next to it and I just couldn’t believe it!
'It wasn’t close but I took some pictures of it at a distance just to prove that I’d seen it.I didn’t think the quality was very good but The Times [newspaper] published it,' said Sue.
'I kept going to the same spot - as I still do - and for a couple of weeks every time I went down there he was there in the same place, more or less.'
'He was a youngster - you could see that by his facial features; he hadn’t got the character that an older hare gets when they are in their second year.
'But he just stood out among the crowd because of his colour, he really did - just beautiful.'
He was a wary creature, said Sue, perhaps because he knew he stood out.
'This particular one couldn’t go anywhere without being seen. He’d hang around in the longer vegetation; then he’d just pop out and I did manage to get very close to him.'
In mid-October she had a visitor from Colorado in the USA who photographs hares and was keen to see Sue’s blue hare. Sue took her to see it… but the crop in the field had been harvested and the hare was nowhere to be seen. And that was the last she saw of her ghost.
A while later a local gamekeeper, who had seen her photographs, stopped to chat to her and told her that they had four ghosts on the estate last year. He said in previous years there had been as many as seven and as few as none.
Sue is keeping the location of the ghost - and his companions - a secret, If criminal hare coursers found out that there was a special hare there it would be worth a lot of money.
Sue, who had a career in estate agency, has always enjoyed photography. She got into wildlife photography after a visit to South Africa a decade ago when she bought her first "proper" camera.
When she was working in Hunstanton she would take a lunchtime walk and watch the seabirds. She became fascinated by what she saw and when she left full-time work she developed her hobby.
'I really got interested in what was about and when it was about so when I finished work full-time I used to go for a walk every day and I took my camera with me and it grew from there, really.'
Her portfolio covers a wide range of wildlife, but she has a soft spot for hares.
'Walking virtually every day you get to know what they do in the different seasons, you get to know exactly where they are… you just feel that you’re living your life with them. I’ve spent hours and hours with them and it’s given me so much pleasure.'
As well as hares, deer, rabbits and owls and puffins are favourite subjects for Sue’s zoom lens and several of her images have been featured in national newspapers.
You can see more of Sue’s beautiful wildlife photography on the Norfolk Countryside Photos Facebook group or on Sue’s own page.
