Patience paid off for Norfolk wildlife photographer Peter Mallett who had to wait for hours to capture this image of some mad April hares in action.

Hares are famous for their erratic behaviour when spring has sprung, as these animals proved on a field at Buckenham, near Acle, this week.

The semi-professional photographer, who lives at nearby North Burlingham, has been getting up at 5.30am and setting up his camera and laying down on the edge of the field to snap the leaping hares. He eventually got the image he was looking for at about 8am on Monday.

'I have spent countless hours down there and you can easily have 20 hares there, but they are 200 yards away and there is no way you can get close to them. It is just a waiting game.'

'On that particular morning, after a couple of hours there were a couple of hares mating and then a third one came along and they started to chase each other and jump,' he said.

For more information, visit www.wildnorfolk.co.uk