Spring Critters

Just about the time you think that spring is taking a toehold on the scenery we get gobsmacked with more snow, windy sleet, freezing rain, or rain followed by more snow.

Nevertheless,, it hasn't confined the critters to their dens or roosts.

Further evidence of the ebb and flow of wild things and snow cover from the trail cams there is this:

A crow

A doe

A scruffy-looking deer

And a cottontail

 

 

My Kingdom for a Predator

There seems to be an overabundance of rabbit poop on the landscape.  It’s possible it has always been there and the snow covering the ground provides the contrast for increased visibility.  Nevertheless, the Labs seem to be drawn to the flower beds around the perimeter of the house to dine upon all of the accumulated rabbit pellets. 

I know for sure that the rabbits prefer to den in the relative safety underneath the lean-to porch of the granary.  And the dogs are drawn to snuffing and searching there too.  Arising in the morning there are bunny tracks on the snow-covered porch surrounding the house.  My impression is that there are too many rabbits on the landscape.    

Meet Sylvilagus floridanus – the Eastern Cottontail.  This is a true New World cottontail rabbit - a member of the family Leporidae.  It is the most common rabbit species in North America distributed across a range from southern Canada to South America and from the east coast of the United States to New Mexico and Arizona.   This critter eats a wide range of plants including twigs and bark in the winter months.

Mostly nocturnal, crepuscular (evening and twilight) it becomes quite active in late winter when the males fight to establish breeding dominance. The eastern cottontail can jump a distance of up to fifteen feet and when pursued by a predator will leap from side to side to break its scent trail.  Top speed for this rabbit is fifteen miles per hour. 

Mating begins this month and the female will give birth about a month from now to four or five young – naked and with their eyes closed.   Mama will build a nest in a depression in the ground and line it with soft materials and fur from her chest.  The young are nursed at dawn and at dusk, weaned after about three weeks and leave the nest at the seven week point.  Most females can mate again just hours after giving birth. Females can have three or four litters a year. Eastern cottontails are ready to mate when they are only three months old and capable of producing as many as thirty-five offspring in a year.  This is one of the most prolific mammals on the landscape. 

My kingdom for a predator…..

IR Photos

This is a healthy-looking coyote and as near as I can figure from comparable photos about the same size as my blonde Lab.

Infrared technology (IR for short) allows for picture-taking after dark without a visible flash and saves substantially on battery life.  It also is less obtrusive and doesn't alert most animals to the presence of a camera (other than the camera is obviously there).  Pictures have a tendency to be blurred in this mode but I seem to capture enough good ones to make it worth while.







The rabbit with three ears is from several years ago.  Besides, what's not to like about a three-eared bunny...

click on images for a closer look

 

 

Easter Oddity

Speaking of the Easter Bunny - the holiday would not be complete without the appearance of the three-eared rabbit....

Go Ahead - Click on the Image for  a Better Look

 

Death Pays a Visit

Found in the front yard...

click on the remains for a closer look

 

Death paid a visit last night and I believe I now know who it is.  My vote goes to one of the resident Great Horned Owls - Bubo virginianus. 

The dogs and I have been finding this sort of thing rather regularly - scattered tufts of bunny fur, usually entrails and occasionally a limb.  I had been puzzled as to who the killer might be - hawk, coyote, owl, aliens or whatever.  This nails it as the remains of this bunny materialized overnight and were found on a patch of bare grass in the yard surrounded by snow. 

Even an amateur detective knows that owls hunt at night and because there were no other animal tracks in the snow surrounding the evidence the only conclusion is that death came from above.  Hence owl.  And likely the most common of owls around here.

As further evidence the horned owl lays its eggs in January and February so right about now they would be raising a hungry brood of owlets.

If you are a rabbit is sucks to be at the bottom of the food chain.  As the saying goes here in Door County - the strong survive and the weak are killed and eaten...

Death Pays a Visit

The resident bunny population is either taking a pounding, the predators are having a bountiful winter, the cottontail population is too large or the dogs are getting better at locating the remains of a kill.

In this instance all that remains are tufts of fur.  Not a single bone, limb or entrail. 

I can only speculate as to hawk, coyote, owl or fox.  Probably not fox as coyotes are showing regularly on the Moultrie cameras.  It is generally one or the other and if it is the former it cannot be the latter.  I lean toward owl.

No matter how you slice it the bunny is still dinner. 

Death Pays a Visit

While running around in the woods the girls found this...

click on the deceased for a better look

 

The remains of a cottontail rabbit.  Life is very tenuous when you occupy the lower rungs of the food chain which is why this animal is so prolific.  Some females can produce as many as thirty-five offspring in a year.  Nevertheless, most bunnies don't make it a year before someone eats them.

There is some speculation in my mind as to who dined upon this rabbit.  The legs and many of the bones and fur remained behind.  Raptor or mammalian predator?

Death Pays a Visit

If you are of delicate sensibilities read no further and close your browser.  Come back tomorrow for a different post.

The dogs found this in the yard the other morning and they were ecstatic.

Rabbit entrails.

Bits of fur confirmed that this gross morsel previously belonged to a cottontail bunny - yet it was so tracked-up by the Labs that it was impossible to ascertain whether the perpetrator of the killing was a fox, coyote or raptor.  If I had to hazard a guess I would guess any of the above.

Life is tenuous near the bottom of the food chain thus bunnies are prolific.The death occurred overnight  and all that remained was the intestines.  Funny - I always thought that if you were a predator that was the best part.

Prey

You're probably scratching your head over the posting of IR photos of nighttime bunny rabbits.

They've been showing-up regularly as nocturnal visitors and I'm going to keep watching because where there are bunnies there are predators.  

One day the faithful and ever-vigilant trail camera is going to capture an owl or some other predator ambushing one of these rabbits.

They're the lure...

Dogs, Waiting and More Good Things Continued

Glorious day to sleep-in.  19 degrees and sunny with another covering of the white stuff overnight.

Putting the coffee on upon arising I savored a cuppa and fed the Labs.  Then I put them out on their leads to do their morning business.  Remember it is around 20 degrees or thereabouts with a stiff breeze.  Not particularly conducive to lingering outside even if you are a Labrador retriever.

Wondering what was taking the dogs so long to complete their routine I gazed out the front door to spy both dogs where they are forbidden.  They had jumped The Frau's wire fence bordering the flower bed and were alternately digging and chomping upon something with conspicuous gusto.

Baby bunnies.

Corralling the hounds I shepherded them back into the house after their illicit repast.

I have some advice for the whitetail rabbit world - free advice too.  You construct your nest adjacent to the porch at your own peril.

As for the dining upon baby bunnies - this too shall pass...

 

The Trouble With Bunnies

You know the bunny population is too high when you find their tracks all over the trails and woods and yard.  Even on the porch.

It's time to call for help.  

click on image to enlarge

The photo was the last one snapped by the trail camera rescued north of the creek.

Freak Show at the Platz

click image to examine it more closely

Yup - a rabbit with three years. 

One picture of several captured on a trail camera last week.

Someone from Sturgeon Bay submitted a photo of a rabbit with four ears that was published in the March 19^th edition of the Door County Advocate.  It would appear that the peninsula is home to a mutant form of cotton tail rabbit that is well-endowed in the ear department.

Are all of the ears functional?  If so, is a rabbit with multiple ears endowed with extrasensory hearing powers?  With the prolific breeding that is found in rabbits are there more of them?  Inquiring minds want to know.

A rabbit with multiple ears has also been found in California and you can see a video of it here- http://www.maniacworld.com/four-eared-rabbit.html

Extra-ears are inherited as a simple recessive trait and is also found in cats.  There is some evidence that the four ears mutation might result in a shortened life expectancy.  In any event the rabbit in the picture above is very much alive and I'm thrilled to be witness to such an oddity.

You can learn more about it here.

Owl Bait

More bunny pictures on a couple of the trail cameras.

One day I'm going to be lucky enough to get an action picture of one of the resident owls ambushing Mr. Bunny from above.

Meal for an Owl

Photo taken by a trail camera with IR (infrared mode - no visible flash) of a bunny.  

click on image to enlarge

There were actually three photos.  A bunny, a blurry hopping bunny and this bunny.  It occurred to me that there is always the possibility of one of the cameras one day capturing a raptor pouncing on one of these members of the bottom of the food chain.

Bunny is a meal for an owl...

Hasenpfeffer

Hasenpfeffer is a traditional German braise made from marinated rabbit slow-cooked with onions, vegetables and a marinade made from wine and vinegar.

A picture from the rabbit farm... 

click on the delicious bunny to enlarge

Animal Hole

If you are a Labrador retriever there is nothing better than discovering a bunny nest in the woods.

While out working on the tree farm I came across the destroyed remains of what was probably a rabbit nest.

It was already excavated as the girls got to it before I did.  Not that it would have mattered anyway.

If there were any inhabitants they were consumed.

Life is tough when you are on the bottom of the food chain.

 click on image to enlarge

Eastern Cottontail

Sylvilagus floridanus - the Eastern cottontail.  

Not quite as large as a Snowshoe hare this critter sports a brown coat in the winter.  Snowshoe hares are white in the winter. 

This prolific mammal is capable of producing multiple offspring as many as five times throughout the year making it an important part of the food chain among predators.

Female cottontails are called does.  Male cottontails are called bucks.