Behind the hedgerows – the shadowy life of our natural world

That advice is sound – shadows from plants can conceal a lot. It affects our wild creatures, too. They realise just how protective shadows can be, with black animals and birds becoming invisible during the intense shades of high summer.

Sunshine in the woods above Byland Abbey produced darkness among the trees but as we walked, I sensed movement nearby.

It was a small herd of fallow deer moving gracefully away at our approach. A straggler was coloured black and it remained motionless, quite invisible for a few seconds until it stepped into a pool of sunlight. It was astonishing to realise that such a large creature could become invisible at close range.

Similarly on my morning walk, I sensed a presence only yards away behind a hedge at the other side of the lane. It comprised clipped hawthorn but some of its trees were covered in ivy that had spread into

the hedgerow.

I could see a vague black outline close to the far side of the hedge, motionless in shadows cast by the sun. At that time, I was acutely aware that a large black cat-like animal had been reported in our vicinity.

The sightings, all anecdotal, suggested it was a panther, but was my sighting such an animal? At that moment, a car passed between us

and in those seconds the creature vanished.

I cannot be certain what I saw except it was not as large as a fallow deer. It was more the size of a Labrador, so could it have been a fox? Or nothing more exciting than a dog?

In that vicinity, I have previously seen a large male fox with a very dark coat, and foxes can appear in various shades including black.

In my part of Yorkshire, wild black rabbits are fairly common, too. These are not domestic bunnies that have escaped but a strain that appears to survive despite their close association with others with normal grey-brown fur. Locally, numbers fluctuate from year to year but black rabbits can be found on some off-shore islands.

There, they may be isolated from those of other colours, but nonetheless black ones remain fairly common on the mainland.

As a great deal of rabbit activity takes place at night, those black ones can probably consider themselves rather safe but even in daytime, they can become invisible in the shadows of dense vegetation and over-hanging hedgerows.

The same applies to our wild birds. One that has colour variations is the pheasant and although there are occasional reports of black ones, these might, in fact, be very dark green males.

They can appear black in some conditions although there is a grey variety and some cock pheasants may display black bars.

Male blackbirds can also disappear like magic among our garden plants and all this reminds me of the poet Shelley who wrote of splendour among the shadows. Perhaps he meant wild life among the shadows.

CW 24/7/10