A Bunny Named Blaze

We have a lot of rabbits. I like rabbits. I like to watch them. I have to say I hate what rabbits do to my gardens, especially in early spring and summer—mowing down tender transplants almost the moment I plant them. I have to put everything in baskets, on benches, or on pedestals, and even so they still thwart me, climbing up to mow things down. It’s been years since I have been able to plant a geranium in the ground. For someone who loves geraniums as much as I do, that’s a significant sacrifice.

Rabbits are amazingly catlike, the way they groom themselves and lay around, the way they spar and tussle and fight. They’re cool animals. I wish they didn’t kill geraniums and salvias, portulaca and lobelia and BASIL—they ate all my kitchen garden basil this year! That's why I grow most of it in the fenced garden. No wascally wabbit gets my summer pesto.

However. Every once in awhile a rabbit comes along and steals my heart despite it all. One such is Blaze. I first saw him as a newly-fledged baby, and I did a triple-take. What the heck is that on his face? A blaze. Oh, how adorable. Eastern cottontails usually have a dash of white between their ears; Blaze just took it farther.


A few days later I saw Blaze in the company of a large old rabbit, who I guessed might be his mom. I don’t know—they might not have been related at all, but Blaze was hanging around this animal as if he knew it. Rabbits fledge very small, and they’re on their own and eating clover while they’ll still fit in the palm of your hand.


The big rabbit took off, and Blaze followed.

But rabbits grow very fast. I didn’t see Blaze for a couple of weeks when wow! There he was, still hanging out beneath the studio birches. All grown up, with a clover flower hanging out the side of his mouth, being typewritered in, chchchchchch.


What a fine bunny Blaze has grown up to be. And so far he has stayed out of my flower beds.

I love this picture, even though I took it through my studio panes.

FYI I don’t let Chet Baker out when Blaze is in the backyard.

I'm posting (sort of, well, trying to post) from the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad, which is a magical island twelve miles off Venezuela's coast. We are in Bird Heaven, learning how to digiscope with fabulous Leica equipment. Thank you, Leica, for bringing us here, together, just me and Bill and some wonderful company. Today: bearded bellbirds, white-bearded manakins, and beardless tyrannulets. Happy sigh. But putting up a picture heavy blog post here is like squeezing a cow through a transom. It ain't easy, and it takes a lot of time, and time is what I don't have. Too many cool birds to ogle. So there may be interruptions in the flow. At least this time I'm having fun.

The Resolute Bunny

Snow and ice are tough on mammals as well as birds. We laid in and served about 50 pounds of corn during the weeks of snow-in. I'm sure the coyotes, great horned owls and redtails appreciate our corn-fed rabbits.

I was amused, as dusk came on, to see the Bower Bunneh cleaning up corn in a most picturesque way.

A doe came out of the trees, hoping to share.
First she sniffed around the back entrance. Bower Bunneh didn't budge.


So the doe gave Bunneh a wide berth and tried another approach. I love the ear positions on the animals in this shot. The bunny is alert and resolute; the deer undecided.


Bunneh moved off a bit, but didn't give way.


All right. I'm coming in. You are a rabbit and I am an ungulate, many times your size.


I may be a rabbit, but I am no pushover. Go find corn somewhere else, Pointy Toes.



Can't you do something about this, Corn Lady?

Bunny Goes A-Birding

Before the first big snow, Bill built a bower for the birds. How many B's do you count in that sentence?

He built it of birch. There I go again.

And boughs of balsam from our Christmas tree. This is getting ridiculous. I guess I've got B. on my mind. Thanks to the miracle of sleepovers, the house is empty except for us. So why am I here blogging? Well might you ask.

Later...A couple of cardinals share her space.

This bunny thinks the bower is just fine, especially when I throw cracked corn, black oil sunflower and sunflower hearts under there. She is a birding bunny. I like to take pictures of her under there, hoping to get a good combination of pretty birds in the picture.Oh, sweet. A white-throated sparrow, a tree sparrow, and a female cardinal. She looks pleased. I love mammals that are kind to birds.

The tree sparrow shows off its wingbars, and the bunny shows her front paws.


My personal best: Birding Bunneh, eastern towhee, cardinal, and tree sparrow. We're honored to host three towhees, one a female! and five tree sparrows this winter. These shots were taken at dusk, through a window. It's been such a gorgeous winter for birdfeeding. The snow makes it all look so sanitary. As I write this, the snow is finally melting off and phew! the layers upon layers of sunflower hulls on the ground are not nearly so photogenic. Although the snow and ice inconvenienced us a bit, I adored it when a fresh inch or two would fall during the night and scrub everything clean again.

I'm going to do a series of snow posts now before winter is but a distant memory. I took brazilians of images which I will share with you while it is still winter.