Hoppy Easter!

All of the bunnies that frequent this blog would like to wish you a very Hoppy Easter.

If their voices sound a tad muffled, it’s because we now have Flying Tigers patrolling the yard. So, the bunnies are sending their best Easter wishes and waving ‘hello’ from hiding spots.

Flying Tigers?

Indeed. Here they are:

A pair of great horned owls and two owlets! We’ve been watching them since the owlets popped their fluffy heads over the top of the nest. It’s a first for us. While we’ve heard and (more rarely) seen great horned owls about us for years, neither of us (nor anyone we know) has ever seen a nesting pair. It’s wonderful!

They’re called Flying Tigers because in their realm they are as ferocious a night-hunting predator as the tigers of the jungle are, and are as feared by the local wildlife. A great horned owl hunts everything from mice to raccoons, and is the major predator of skunks. We can attest to that, btw. They aren’t the least bit bothered by the odor when a skunk has sprayed them in its last act of defense (ugh) although we can smell the owls after they’ve nabbed a skunk as they fly by! They are amazing hunters, and impressive just to watch, to boot.

Here’s one of the adults guarding the nest (the fuzzy white at the top of the nest is the heads of the owlets). The adults are enormous birds, over two feet tall with wingspans that are close to five feet. I can attest to how startling it is to have one of these magnificent birds fly over your head at a distance of no more than fifteen feet! Their wings and feathers are such that their flight is virtually noiseless, which adds to the “startle factor” when one of them swoops overhead.

Here’s one of the owlets watching the photographers. They’re a fascinating mix of cute and ferocious, aren’t they?

And here’s the same shot, but without the close-up, so you can see, Oh Best Beloved, just how big that “baby” and nest are. We estimate that the nest is close to three feet deep and two feet wide. Trust me, there is no safe way to get close enough to it to really find out!

If you’d like to know more about great horned owls, Max Terman’s book, “Messages from an Owl,” is an outstanding source of information on them. Max has spent decades studying great horned owls, and his book details his discoveries as he raises and successfully releases back into the wild one particular owl, Stripey.

For those who are worried about the bunnies, yes, the population has diminished. As I counted fifteen one day alone in our yard last year, and plenty more all about the area, the large local rabbit population is undoubtedly one of the reasons the owls decided on nesting in this area. However, the rabbits have plenty of hidey holes. Both BB and Dude are fine, but are much more cautious wild bunnies than was their wont in the past, as one would expect.

And just to allay any of Kris’s fears of bunny loss, here’s a little softened ‘portrait’ shot I took of BB at dusk recently, when she was carefully hidden underneath a bush right by the house. Can you believe it? She’s all grown up!

My thanks to Dan and Eric, who took all the owl photos and gave me permission to use them. You guys are great!

Who’s On First?

In the universe of Bad Karma, I’m apparently near the front of the “let’s make life a little more nasty than nice” line. I really did hope to start blogging regularly again. Unfortunately, that requires both a working computer and a working ISP. Since last Friday, both of our computers have been wonky, and both of our ISPs have been mostly down.

I’m viewing it as just another example of How The Universe Enjoys Picking On Me.

Harumpf.

In hopes that both problems are now resolved to the point of limping along, I thought I’d give a bunny update.

BB is not only fine, she’s grown into a favorite of mine. She’s definitely from Stewart’s lineage: slightly smaller than average, with the patchy coloration from his line and quirky as can be. She also is easy to pick out from the horde (yes, we have a horde of bunnies–which is somewhat more than a litter and somewhat less than a thundering herd) as she has a little white crescent-shaped mark on her forehead. We’ve noticed that many of our bunnies have this as babies, but BB is the only one who hasn’t had hers shed out as she grew.

Michael asked me last week if perhaps Stewart had passed along a gene for “overly friendly wild bunny” to his descendents. I’m thinking maybe so…

Our bunnies are typical wild bunnies around neighbors and strangers that come into our yard, but are perfectly happy to hop all around us, to the point where we really do have to shoo them out of the way when we are doing things.

I told BB last week, when I was poking around under our spruce tree and she appeared, that she was supposed to hop away from the scary humans when they were doing something in the yard, not to hop TO me to investigate what I am doing. She yawned.

YAWNED.

Then she proceeded to groom herself and finally hopped away several moments later to nibble on a patch of late clover.

We’ve had several other batches of bunnies arrive, and one of the latest also has the “friendly” gene in spades. I’ve named him “Dude,” as he is the most laid-back yard bunny to date. He’s so reluctant to move from “his” spot when I come across him that I’ve actually had to reach down and threaten to nudge his little rump to get him out of the way. As he hops off, he clearly slings over his shoulder, “Hey, Dude, what’s the deal? That was my spot!” Hence, his name.

We have one other, of the five originally in BB’s litter, who has also remained with us. We call her “Snug” as she likes to snuggle herself down into the grass. She has “radar” ears that are constantly moving from one direction to another, and has a particular fondness for Michael. She will sit on the stoop of his shop when he’s inside it, or snuggle down in the pathway from the house to the shop, wait there and then refuse to move when he appears. Me she just tolerates.

Most of the other bunnies from this year’s crop have hopped to other abodes, or been lost to predators when they made mistakes that left them vulnerable. If they hadn’t, we would be awash in bunnies by this point!

In terms of other regulars for this summer, we’ve had a redtail hawk that checks out the yard regularly, to the great consternation of the furry folk and the songbirds. We also have a Coopers hawk that flies through the yard at about shoulder height, scaring the bejabbers out of me every single time, and has even roosted on the back of one of our lawn chairs. The great horned owls are back, too, giving concerts, and with the oncoming winter I see bald eagles often.

And lest I forget to mention them, the Canada geese are starting to fly through in flocks that number in the hundreds, landing on the river to form gatherings of thousands of geese nightly. Two days ago a small flock flew so close to the house that I could hear the beat of their wings, and see individual feathers.

Oh, and one other thing… it’s already been snowing. Hasn’t stuck, yet, but it’s truly snowed–several times now.

That doesn’t bode well for a nice easy winter.

Just Call Me Mama Paparazzo

Apparently, bunnies want to get their picture featured in Butter Side Down. They must have a bunny telegraph that they use to let each other know where I am when I have my camera. Or maybe they just text each other. However it is they’re doing it, wherever I go, bunnies find me.

This bunny is not one of “mine.” This bunny hopped out from its hiding spot in the brush to say ‘howdy,’ at a restored prairie area in a county park.

As soon as I saw him, I pointed out that he was supposed be terrified of me, that I was an ogre, that he was wild and people like me are dangerous to bunnies. Do you know what he did?

Of course you know what he did.

He laughed.

Yeah. He did. I’ve got proof. I took his photo. See? Look at this closeup of his fuzzy little face.

He laughed! He did!

BB!

Surprise! Surprise! I caught you on camera! This is BB, the baby bunny that Dan rescued from being Rudy’s dinner. She is absolutely adorable — and all rabbit.  Yesterday she mowed down an entire patch of unfenced morning glories in a matter of moments.

She’s the boldest of the baby bunnies that are skittering about the yard (I’ve seen at least five different baby rabbits this week). She’s actually so bold that she’s a bit of a nuisance, as she likes to bound back and forth from one clump of daylilies to another right in front of you.  You have to be careful that you don’t accidentally step on her!

She’s also, as you can see, very curious. She really wanted to know what that noise was coming from my direction (it was the camera lens adjusting), but wasn’t… quite… bold enough to hop closer and see.

And, having determined that it’s just me, well, there’s clover to attend to… so could I please just run along… nothing more to see… move along… can’t a baby rabbit just eat in peace?

Humans!  Geez!

That’s My Girl!

Nope – no photo, but I’m here to tell you that BB, daughter of James, granddaughter of Stewart, is her daddy and grandpa’s spitting image.

The little squirt ran past me several times this evening, no more than two or three feet away each time.

She was at the front of a congo line composed of: BB (aka Baby Bunny), Half Pint and Half Pint Redux (sibling baby chipmunks). They ran back and forth across the pathway at the side of our house about five times in five seconds, right in front of me, while I stood there and grinned at their antics.

Much as I hate to admit it, it’s nice to have a new bunch of baby bunnies hopping around the yard even though they’re really Dan’s bunnies – after all, he’s the one that MADE me provide a safe harbor for BB… and I’m sure the rest just hopped on over here right after BB. That’s my story… that it’s all Dan’s fault… and I’m sticking to it. For now. Or at least until I come up with a better story that explains why I am blessed with an abundance of hungry bunnies every year!

If BB ever slows down below light speed, I’ll get a new photo of her to share.