Spring has definately sprung! So far, the baby count is:


At least two baby downy woodpeckers, although I am pretty sure there are more.

Two baby white-breasted nuthatches (eee! so tiny! I was sitting out between two trees, and one was perched on each tree trunk, so I was hearing "quah quah quah" in stereo!)

One baby hairy woodpecker (Big Daddy and Big Momma's off-spring!)

At least one red-bellied woodpecker, although I haven't seen it up-close yet. The nest is right near my yard and I've seen the parents ferrying food to and fro for a couple of weeks now. The baby just came out for the first time this week, but hasn't quite made it to my yard yet.

Several baby grackles.

Two baby robins, who get left in my feeding area several times a day now by Momma, who comes back and checks on them often, but as soon as they start squawking, she flies off again. They are definately getting "weened".

One baby cottontail, who has done several "drive-by rabbitings" and I also saw him in the middle of the patch of wild strawberries behind my house, torn between sheer delight in having all that sweetness to himself... and looking very tiny and "please don't eat me"-ish. All I could see was his face from the eyes up and his ears over the tiny strawberry plants.

Two baby grey squirrels, brought around by Momma today for the first time. It was hard to tell just who Momma was, because there were EIGHT squirrels here for breakfast, but I have my suspicion that it was Gimpy.

Tags: bird watching, cottontail, squirrels, within the fence
Current Mood: sore

I feed black oil sunflowers, cracked corn, peanuts both in shell and shelled raw and unsalted, and safflower hearts.

Any idea what would be leaving large purple splotches in the snow?  Rather like purple pee splotches? Too big for birds, but would something else (squirrels, cottontails) be eating something from this mix that might be causing purple pee? Or would something in the mix itself be purplish?

Tags: bird watching, cottontail, squirrels, within the fence
Current Mood: confused

Littlest, who is NOT Blazer's littermate, visited this evening. While he was here, I saw a tiny bunny hiphiphip-ing across the yard.  When s/he saw Littlest, s/he drew up short.... but s/he REALLY wanted Within The Fence.  But there was An Adult Bunny there.  Ooooo, the indecision!

In the end, yummies won out, and it wasn't a hard battle.  Baby bunny popped through the dollar store fencing, popped back out again, then hiphiphip-ed all the way around and peeked in.  Littlest pinned his ears back and shied away, and the baby did the same.  Littlest has, until now, always been the low ranking cotton, so this obviously puzzled him.  He went back to eating and the baby hiphiphip-ed a small semi-circle around and settled on my pathway directly under my window and settled to eat seed.  

Which is when I realized that there was no white stripe, so this wasn't Blazer, and must be either a littermate, or a bunny from another litter from around the same time.  More likely a littermate, since there were five in the litter.  She looks to be even tinier than Blazer, but without him around, it was really hard to tell.

Anyway... . PICTURES!!

Tags: cottontail, within the fence
Current Mood: enthralled

Blazer has become a regular visitor to my little Within The Fence world. He is still tinier than belief -- I saw an ant run over his paw once, and the ant was BIGGER THAN HIS PAW (although to be fair, it was a REALLY REALLY BIG ANT!!).

I believe he is living next door (not the yard where he was born, but on the other side of my house.  He was Within The Fence one morning, just munching away (he is ALWAYS eating - gotta keep up with that growing body).  Then he ambled around my front yard for a bit, sampling the yummies.  Then he hiphiphipped (not quite hopping) across the road.  I live in a private community. The roads are only 10mph and very lightly traveled.  In the center of the road in front of my house, there is a birch tree.  Right in the middle of the road. Literally. The road parts around it. Around the birch tree is a planter-type thingie filled with lillies.  Currently, they are about two feet tall.  Blazer disappered into them.  Every so often, a lily would twitch, but I wasn't sure if that was him or a chipmunk.  Just when I had decided that he had gone out the other side (the lilies are so tall, I never would have seen him), he popped out again and hiphiphipped back to my yard and up my driveway.

Compelled with curiousity, I hurried through my house and peeked out my side door.  There he went past my porch (hiphiphip) and stopped at the lawn to munch some more.  I tiptoed out onto the porch, and he rolled a tiny ear at me and went about six yards further to the end of the house.  Since he wasn't in any panic, I tiptoed to the edge of the lawn.  He rolled his ear at me again and went about another six yards away to the edge of my shed. Each time we did this, he'd stop and immediately ate what ever was in front of him.  I followed until I was at the end of my house, peeking around the corner.

Six foot tall woman dressed entirely in black, stalking a tiny baby bunny.

The neighbors already think I'm bonkers anyway.

Tags: cottontail, within the fence
Current Mood: enthralled

What a surprise I had this morning, when I walked into my studio and saw one of the babies from the nest in the feeding area!  And it was my favorite one, the one with the white stripe on his forehead.  I immediately started calling him Blazer.  My first sight of him was a baby bunny leaping and whirling in the air and punching out at a chipmunk!  I hurry-tiptoed to my chair and grabbed the camera.

So without further ado... I introduce Blazer!

 

Tags: cottontail, within the fence
Current Mood: giddy

 In complete contrast to the park's claim that rabbits only eat at night (HA!), Littlest showed up at 700pm.  

It is rather rare for him to be QUITE this early, but I was delighted to be able to get some decent pictures of him.

 

I love the white blaze on his left hip.





And I love this shot. Whether he's grabbing a cecal or a quick tummy wash, it's a great candid shot! Although he looks a little like a deer.  It also shows off nicely that typical Eastern Cottontail tan spot between the shoulder blades.

A young 'un also bounced through my yard, but was right tight against the base of my house and I didn't get a good look at him.  Then he sat on the other side of my hedge, and all I could see was a cotton-butt.  Then he ran wheeeee! across the road to the neighbors' yard and had a nice leisurely munching on their lawn.  I've seen him often over there at about the same time, but I haven't really had much of a good look.  The one time I did see him was a couple of weeks ago, and I'd place him at about two months old. 

Tags: cottontail, within the fence
Current Mood: enthralled

Sorry, I've been remiss in this one!

Last week, the babies moved out.  

I missed it.

Woe.

According to my neighbor, three left one day (probably the same three that explored out the conifir first) and the other two the next.

I haven't seen them since, nor have my neighbors, although I have seen Mrs Neighbor peering from bush to bush in her flower gardens, hoping to see them.

However!

On Thursday of last week, I saw Cotton (the Momma) and Brownie (the very probable Daddy) doing the Eastern Cottontail Mating Dance, so I'm hoping that in about three more weeks, there will be more babies! I'm not sure if she will reuse the same nesting area, but it's a hope!

Tags: cottontail
Current Mood: hopeful

 I. HATE. PEOPLE.

There are very few things that manage to seep through my illness enough to bring me real enjoyment.  Feeding my cottontails and other wildlife is one of them.

Someone saw a skunk and complained to the park management.  They also complained that I must be to blame because I was putting food out at night.

Although since when is 500 in the afternoon "at night"?  And a few leaves of lettuce is to blame for a skunk in the neighborhood?  We are in rural upstate NY, folks. There are ALWAYS skunks here.

But I am to blame, because rabbits ONLY eat at night.

So I can no longer put food out for my cottontails.

I did clear that I could continue to put birdseed out, which is good, because if they banned me from doing THAT, I'd go into true conniptions.  In a park of over 300 homes, most of which are retirees who FEED BIRDS, there is no way they could bar one person from that.  

I try really hard to keep a low profile here, because I have one more cat than the rules used to allow, which I never agreed with.  I OWN my home.  Just not the land.  And my cats are indoor cats. They don't set paw on their land.  I once asked why there was even a pet fee in this situation.  The employee told me rather weakly that he had been told it was to cover the extra cost in garbage removal of (get this!) cat food cans.

Now, dogs can be exempt from the pet fee, if there is a 6 foot tall fenced in yard.

Anyway, I digress.

I can't put out greens for my cottontails any more.

Isn't it fortunate that they do like birdseed and it gives them much-needed protein? And that I planted lots of yummy clover for them as well as daisies?  And have some endive seedlings started that can also be transplanted?

Still, I'm truly pissed.  Not to mention that I was just starting to come out of my shell and TALK to my neighbors (gee, I've only lived here 12 years and still only know the names of one set of neighbors, and that's because he plows my driveway in winter and I had to know his name to write it on the checks), and see what I get for it? Reported for feeding bunny rabbits.

And people wonder why I am such a hermit.

Tags: cottontail, rant-n-raves, within the fence
Current Mood: pissed off

Here are more pictures! Not quite as good this time, as it was just me trying to hold back leaves and hold the camera at the same time.  Plus, they're more wiggly now.  They're about two weeks, or just under, and obviously this plant is their favorite hide-out.






 

As you can tell, the one with the white star is my favorite!



Lookit the tiny paw!!

The new morning manager at the grocery story isn't very fond of the idea of giving Wilty Greens to me, so I'll have to pick my grocery times a little more carefully.  I bought a second head of romaine, so Momma Cotton can have a little more protein during milk production time.  In another week or two, these little guys will be on their own.

A juvenile cotton came around last night for the first time.  He's barely two months old, if that - still all gangly and awkward, and not at all certain about what he should eat. He'll catch on quickly, I'm sure.

Tags: cottontail
Current Mood: bouncy

After the thunderstorms we had last night, I couldn't help myself and took a peek this afternoon.  At first, I thought they had abandoned the nest. The little patch of fur was empty, and I thought maybe Cotton had decided that there was just too much going-ons and took her little ones someplace else.  I comforted myself that there wasn't any little baby fur laying around, so it didn't look like anything had gotten them.

Then I looked to the right of the nest, and there were all five snuggled together in the flower bush, enjoying the breeze coming through.  They all had their eyes open and didn't seem at all worried about me.  No one moved, but there wasn't any fast I'm-scared breathing either.  My little favorite with the white star on his forehead was the closest.  Everyone looked well-fed. My camera is filled with pics of eBay merchandise, so I couldn't get any new pics this time around.

However, my favorite grey squirrel, Junior (a young'un, only half-sized) has hurt his front leg badly and cannot put weight on it.  He can use it to hold food, but once when he tried to run, he fell over.  I spent about half an hour this morning feeding him some of The Phooka's peanuts from my window.  He was too dignified to beg, but he was almost at the point where he'd look for them after I'd whistle, and would come right up to the window.  Once I mis-threw and pelted him on the rump, and he leapt into the air.  Then while he was still jumpy, one of the chipmonks came up behind him, and he whirled on him.  The chippermonker eeeeeked and jumped straight up... and landed in the waterbowl I have set out for them.  Poor guy was so shook up looking for the monster, he couldn't even let himself climb out of the waterbowl for several seconds.  I couldn't help giggling.  Anyway, at least Junior got a good meal in him without having to compete with anyone or work very hard. 

Tags: cottontail, within the fence
Current Mood: contemplative