The green green grass of home

During February the grasses are at their zenith. Grasses are so varied and so beautiful, and I think a bouquet of grasses rivals any bunch of flowers. The way they bend and sway as the wind washes over them is like watching starlings murmurate, or the aurora borealis dance, or thousands of tiny fish shoaling. It’s a mesmerising floral ballet and it stops me in my tracks when low light catches it at play.

Some of my favourites are bottlebrush grass, signal grass, cat’s tail grass, finger grass, guinea grass, herringbone grass and spear grass, but my top two are Natal red top grass that has velvety pink inflorescences, and feathered chloris that has cream tufts of ‘feathers’.

Photographing grass forces you to be creative because it looks exquisite when backlit or side-lit and the inflorescences shine brightly. But not everyone is grass obsessed so as a wildlife photographer it’s great if you can include a small creature clinging to a blade of grass or fluttering by. I have spent probably too long sitting in a field of grass at sunrise willing an enchanting feline animal to slink into frame and part the sea of gold and green before me.

Enchanting is a word not often associated with spotted hyenas, but they are technically more feline than canine belonging to the suborder Feliformia. (Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including large and small cats, hyenas, mongooses and viverrids. It is in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Caniformia consisting of "dog-like" carnivorans. It is also because of this classification that we refer to baby hyenas as cubs, not pups.) Anyway, while randomly focusing on some side-lit feathered chloris grass that was just too beautiful to pass by, I noticed some slight movement that turned out to be two hyenas returning from night patrol. They were ambling along and stopping here and there to sniff the grass and read the signs of any animals that may have brushed the grass when passing by.

These are without doubt the most enchanting photos I’ve ever taken of hyenas and it’s a great joy to have the grass help showcase the soft, gentle, curious aspects of their complex nature.