Sunday, July 11, 2021

Run rabbit run. . . . . . . .


. . . . . . .or just stay and nibble in the garden!

This week we seem to have a family of rabbits, large, medium, and 
a cute as a button tiny baby appeared yesterday. All are rollicking across
 the lawn, hopping across the back deck, climbing up on flower pots
 and biting off leaves, nibbling the grass as in these photos from yesterday,
 and taking a shady break under one of the big hydrangea bushes in front
 of the porch as 90+ degrees return.

Note our grass is getting too long - rabbits like this I think.
Our neighbor borrowed our mower and accidentally damaged a wheel
 so it's out of commission until we can get it repaired. May have to hire a
 service to mow before we have a meadow rather than a lawn!






 I know they can become pests, however right now I'm enjoying them, would
 love to cuddle the baby. . . . . . . . but at least they don't jump on the feeders
 and gobble the birdseed like the darned squirrels!

There is nothing more delightful than a garden alive with butterflies, bees, 
birdsong, and small creatures. Natural habitats are often eroded and it 
seems our gardens, even those close to cities and highways, are now
 offering them much-needed refuge. With so much building going on in
 our neighborhood woodland has almost disappeared. Some wildlife
 can be dangerous that close to home, one has to be aware, but many
 creatures are delightful to see just outside the window. 
Nature really is wonderful.

Here I'm sharing my list of actual sightings recalled over the 35 years
 we've lived in this house (at last one, very often an entire family) - other
 than the many different birds and insects - seen in my garden, and we
 do not live in the countryside!

Grey Fox
Grey Squirrel
Chipmunk
Rabbit
Deer
Lizard
Frog
Toad
Opossum
Raccoon
Mouse
Feral Cat
Vole
Mole
Coyote
Various Snakes 

So, who's "coming to dinner" in your garden?
Our property is only a quarter acre but sometimes I feel like I'm
 living on a farm. Actually it was a farm years ago!
Enjoy your Sunday. Very hot here with afternoon rain - as if
we didn't have enough on Thursday when Elsa went through.
Thankfully we survived - just a lot of water pooling in the 
low spots, but no wind gusts to cause damage.

11 comments:

  1. I think that those rabbits would love our terracotta pots filled with lettuce. Very strangely we don't have any rabbits here and at first I couldn't understand why. However, because we live on oolitic limestone they cannot make a burrow in which to live. At first when we moved here we had to take a chisel to to the ground, make a hole, then fill it with soil, before planting anything in the ground.
    The rabbits are so cute, I really enjoy seeing them too. If they nibble the grass then that will surely help Bob out too!
    Our latest visitor was a tiny little shrew this week, but it was far too quick for me to photograph.
    Just about to watch the football match, not that I'm a fan, but I feel as if I must take an interest in something that most of the country is going mad about - "So come on England".

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  2. The rabbits are cute. Since we live in a condo, we don't have a garden anymore. I do have pots of herbs on my lanai. We are lakefront so we do see wildlife here. So far, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Egrets, Ibis, Tortoises, and ducks.

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  3. Dearest Mary,
    Good grief, the lawn mower out of function... Great for letting someone borrowing it.
    Pieter just told me that in The Netherlands his neighbor across the street (and friend) borrowed his lawnmower as well. Than he took his car out of the garage and ran over it... GREAT!
    But the rabbits no doubt love the longer grasses. We biked this afternoon, well biking and racing the final stretch of our 23.5 km as thunder suddenly came up. We made it in time home.
    We got to spot two of those cute bunnies sitting on lawns and nibble.
    Previous round we saw fox squirrels and that time Pieter finally got to see one too! He always missed them before, well I'm biking in front as I know the direction...
    We also spotted a dead copperhead snake not far from our mailbox, on the road... That was a first!
    Have not seen a fox in years, saw one night a mother with baby near our pond, in the moonlight.
    Deer we saw a couple of weeks ago around sunset.
    You are lucky for your lot having been a farm as that means you got good soil that has been improved for quite a while. We are the very first people ever to toil our soil and trying to make it into something. That was hard work and quite a challenge and is now way too much...
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  4. Little bunnies are so cute, but I fear they might do great damage to my garden. I like the way they sit so still as if being still will keep me from seeing them. Just yesterday we saw a raccoon go along a flower bed and then scoot through the hedge to our neighbour's garden. As well, a pair of young deer were just across the fence in our other neighbour's garden, nosing the tomato plants. We rarely see deer in our little subdivision although they are all around, and I wonder if the continuing hot and dry temperatures have affected their usual grazing.
    So glad Elsa went through without damage.

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  5. Cute bunnies, Wow!!! you do have a wide variety of critters.
    We have deer, black and grey squirrels, ducks, geese, chipmunks, moles, groundhogs, opossum, cats, dogs, wild turkeys, snakes and a variety of birds. Blue Jays, cardinals, yellow finch, red wing black bird, wrens, robins, sparrow, woodpeckers and flickers. Then there is a flying insects, so many I am unable to list them, however, we have had an invasion of Gypsy Moths in this city, and we have them on our Copper Beech tree. But we are getting them under control.
    Have a great week.

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  6. My dear Mary, There must be a mouse or two in your parade. Again such beautiful and expert photos.

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  7. never had a rabbit in the garden but we get squirrels, multiple birds, toads, vole, rat, mice. Having a cat keeps the population of the last three down :) I think it's nice to have long grass and encourage wild flowers and insects and intend to do more of this in our very tiny garden next year.

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  8. It is a relief to know there wasn't any damage to your house or garden from Elsa.
    Love the rabbits! As you say, they can be quite a pest, but hey - so are we as a species, from the planet's point of view :-)

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  9. I only have a small back yard but there's been a frog there for the last week or so. Your bunny pictures are superb.

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  10. You have had a lot of wildlife in your garden.
    We love the bunnies too, but sadly the coyote have come and I haven't seen a bunny in a couple weeks.

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  11. I guess this is the year of the bunnies! I have 3 huge bunnies in my yard and they drive my dog, Emma crazy! Ginger my other dog could care less! These rabbits are huge. They run all over my yard and then on to the golf course that my property backs up to. The other night they were racing all over the place on the golf course. They are cute!

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