AND RIGHT INTO MY POLE BEAN PLANTS!!
Cute little guy...well, I think it's actually a girl. (or a doe, yes same as the deer from what I've read).
Sitting on the porch the other day after a wonderful time spent with family and friends on Memorial Day, we watched her, with her butt facing us from the hillside, digging into the hill. Couldn't figure it out until the next day after work that she was making a nest for her kits (the Internet is awesome!) Anyway, I gently pulled back the straw and fur that she had placed in a shallow hole in the hillside and it revealed about 3 baby rabbits, ahwwww, how cute.....NOT! All I could think about was how close the bean plants were to that hole and boy would those babies be hungry once they realized they were bunnies who like veggies! Oh well, I love nature so I said my "ahww how cute" and went on with my business.
However, the next morning when I took the kids up to see Peter Rabbit (who is really a girl but I love literature too!) the hole was empty???
Enter 3 legged neighborhood cat (slash) bobcat......I could tell you a story about this cat that would curl your toenails....maybe another time; it's late (well 9:46pm - I go to bed early these days)...I'll save it for writers block.
Let's just say for now that knowing this cat (slash) bobcat, I shuddered to think what might have happened. I just made up a lame story for the kids and we just kept moving on up to see the.....a....see...the....ya, the grapes "Come along kids, baby rabbits must be out for a walk, do you know where your grape juice comes from......."
Cute little guy...well, I think it's actually a girl. (or a doe, yes same as the deer from what I've read).
Sitting on the porch the other day after a wonderful time spent with family and friends on Memorial Day, we watched her, with her butt facing us from the hillside, digging into the hill. Couldn't figure it out until the next day after work that she was making a nest for her kits (the Internet is awesome!) Anyway, I gently pulled back the straw and fur that she had placed in a shallow hole in the hillside and it revealed about 3 baby rabbits, ahwwww, how cute.....NOT! All I could think about was how close the bean plants were to that hole and boy would those babies be hungry once they realized they were bunnies who like veggies! Oh well, I love nature so I said my "ahww how cute" and went on with my business.
However, the next morning when I took the kids up to see Peter Rabbit (who is really a girl but I love literature too!) the hole was empty???
Enter 3 legged neighborhood cat (slash) bobcat......I could tell you a story about this cat that would curl your toenails....maybe another time; it's late (well 9:46pm - I go to bed early these days)...I'll save it for writers block.
Let's just say for now that knowing this cat (slash) bobcat, I shuddered to think what might have happened. I just made up a lame story for the kids and we just kept moving on up to see the.....a....see...the....ya, the grapes "Come along kids, baby rabbits must be out for a walk, do you know where your grape juice comes from......."
We see these nests often in residential yards, including our own. We have never understood the reasons for selecting the site. Usually, the nest is next to nothing that could be for protection, rather far out in the open. The nest is very small. Apparently, the doe chooses a small indent in the ground, gathers up a little nesting material, and the "rest is history." We think the newborn bunnies are in the nest for only a few days, maybe even just a couple of days. The same nesting place will be used year after year. The same doe...?
ReplyDeleteDid you know that a mower can usually pass over the nest and leave it undisturbed? Yes, usually. At the times when they scatter before reaching the nest, will they find their way back? On more than one occasion, the scattered bunnies quickly attracted the attention of nearby hawks. How do they know so quickly about those little critters being out of the nest? I wonder about the mortality rate in the first few days of life?
Are the beans in the open, or inside a fenced area?
Right now, Roger, the beans are wide open. I have the two t-pee's and I've only planted the one so far. Soaking my bean seeds tonight to plant the other one. After I get the seeds in sometime tomorrow, hopefully we'll have a fence around them this weekend. Sad about the bunnies; not sure what happened to them.
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