rabbit

Future Lilah will be Proud

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailA few days ago we found some baby bunnies in our backyard. If it was just me I’d have made em disappear. Weird though, felt some need to save them from my ruthless wolves. I think it had to do with picturing a few year old Delilah saying “no daddy, help them!”

Ugh.

Anyway, the past few days have been spent constructing various structures to protect the dummies from the fate their mother has bestowed on them. Not only did she place them in my fenced in backyard, but also the lowest point on the property and it’s been raining cats and dogs for a few days now.

Anyway, off to save the bunnies again.

Back Camera

Maybe I’ll get lucky and momma bunny will take them away before I need to mow again…

If you’re keeping track, this is not the first time bunnies visited us.  Every time the nest is packed full of dog hair, so I suspect while the dogs themselves are a deterrent, their hair provides some good nest material that is attractive for the bunnies.

UPDATE: My parents showed up at our house before us a few days ago and didn’t know the bunnies were in the backyard.  They let the dogs out and 2 of them met their demise but the 3rd survived.

UPDATE 2: Momma showed up and took her little one.  Hurray! We had a survivor.  Future Lilah will be proud.

Back Camera

Beechwoods Park

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

First, a confession:  Unlike the others, this is not being written on location at all, I’m writing it at home after going earlier today which is why it’s getting posted so late.

Beechwoods park is a neat little park.  I only recently discovered it while we were house shopping.  Haven’t had the chance to stop by until today.  The park provides some hiking trails along a pretty little brook and winds itself  between a few nice neighborhoods. There are a few bridges over the brook which take you to big open green sections that are maintained by the town.

There are 2 main entrances to the park, and a little over a mile in trails that loop between them.  The North entrance to the park is on High Street Extension and the South entrance to the park is off of Squirrels Heath Rd.  However; one of the really neat things about the park is there are TONS of entrances all over.  Not just hidden trails either, full on signed entrances, just without parking lots.  It seems like they were put in to give access to the park from the neighborhoods it goes through which is really nice.

Although I started my little walk at the north entrance I would suggest you start at the south parking lot and do the loop.  The reason is the north end seems to be a bit wet and a bit swampy.  The trail is in good shape and a little raised, but I have a feeling that come fly season it might be a bit overrun.

Beechwoods park is not a great hiking destination, it’s a bit small, only about a mile of trails, and if you’re not moving fast during fly season it might be a bit uncomfortable.

Beechwoods is a fantastic trail running or mountain biking location (I’m not sure if the town allows bikers or not but I saw tracks so at least some people use it that way).  it’s not overly long but if you’re looking for a quick workout or a place you can do some laps in the great outdoors it’s fantastic!

It’s also a great place to see some flora or fauna.  While I was there today I saw:

It’s a nice little break from the monotony of urban sprawl.

And as always, I’ve created a map of my little hike through Beechwoods park and you can see the path I took (with relatively decent accuracy, I’ll work on that) below.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

http://www.instamapper.com/trk?key=15070518653028619441&width=500&height=350&type=roadmap

Felix the Rabbit

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Our yard seems to be a breeding ground this spring. We’ve had everything from baby robins to baby rabbits. The baby robins showed up last weekend (completely expected, their nest has been in our garage for a few weeks/months now). Had I noticed the nest getting built It wouldn’t have lasted long (birds cause a mess) but I didn’t so we were graced with the presence of at least 2 baby robins. Rachel and I saw them both make it out and into the wild. Our garage is now safe from the birds, thank god!

felix-in-grassThursday while trimming the grass around the various bushes Rachel found a nest of rabbits.  They were all huddled in a hole in the grass around a young lilac bush she planted last year.  All of the rabbits hopped away and hid under the bushes next to the house.

When I got home that night Rachel wanted to show me, so we went outside and found Felix.  Rachel has a tendency to name random animals we see, like charlie the squirrel in the Grand Canyon and now Felix the baby rabbit.  There have been countless others, but their names escape me.

All the rabbits were gone (read: hiding) except for Felix.  In fact, he seemed quite friendly, and even allowed us to pick him up and hold him for a bit.  I’ve had pet rabbits before and usually they fall into one of two categories:

  1. schizophrenic – running and hopping everywhere and generally trying to get away.
  2. terrified – huddled down and not moving, basically pretending to be a stone.

felix-in-handAt first Felix seemed to fit into the second category.  However; the longer we held him he seemed to become comfortable and even curious, sniffing and moving around a bit.

While it was fun to play with him a bit, we thought it best to get him back to his mother, so we put him under the bush next to the house (where we knew the rest of them including the mother had gone) and he hopped inside and disappeared.

We’ve seen baby rabbits every day since then, but we don’t think we’ve seen Felix again yet, all the markings have been different and the ones we’ve seen have run away as fast as you can see them.

Normally I wouldn’t like rabbits, but we only have a small flower garden to worry about so it’ll be fine.  Also the bush that they’re calling home for now is scheduled for removal very shortly.  I assume once it’s gone they’ll vacate the premises.  Until then we’re happy to share our home with Felix the rabbit.