Not So Silly Wabbit...

[silverfox]

I've been getting nocturnal visits from a small tan cottontail over the past two weeks that’s left tracks in the snow and tiny little balls of highly compacted and apparently not too digestible bits of grass all around the outside of my house and throughout my back yard.

I’ve surprised and seen it four or five times now taking my dog out just before bedtime and have actually seen it squatting for ten to fifteen minutes at a time beneath the same tree in my yard a few more times just before hitting the sack through my bedroom window that overlooks the yard.

I’ve been trying to figure out what it’s up to and what’s suddenly so attractive about my yard to this new little visitor because there’s been plenty of snow and no tracks before now to suggest one’s been around and although busy at something that kept it in place for several extended periods of time I couldn’t quite make out or see what the attraction was due to the distance and the dark.

Near as I can make out it’s been eating the little buds off fallen twigs and branches that the ice storm that knocked out my power for three full days created and the zillion little ones off a wild small-leafed and extremely twiggy tree of mine that got smacked pretty hard seems to have provided a bountiful supply that is superbly covered with such buds. A veritable feast for this hungry little scrounger.

This shows me yet again that Mother Nature has many faces besides the ugly ones we happen to give her when she appears to be particularly mean to us or ruthlessly gets in our way. Of course she doesn't play favorites and I'm sure we're far from being at the top of the list even if she did when it comes to determining who needs a break and who's had enough of them to suffer any inconvenience that comes from delivering it.

Considering the way this little critter has been gorging himself I suspect the pickings were getting pretty thin and took a fair bit of digging and chewing before the manna that sure messed up the works for humans in my neck of the woods so suddenly and fortuitously fell from the sky for it. LOL

[murilo]

Very nice/fine snow meditations... pure poetry!

Just in case:
- a green dot to your records! B)