No rabbits here. But we do have deer, deer that eat the daffodills. And bears, bears which can attack the compost bin, and tend to leave huge droppings on the front lawn to be sprayed out in powder form next mowing, causing me to wonder about airborn pathogens.

Just the packrats under the shed, and they stink, and eat our fertilizer.

It's funny though how positive we can be about nature, then something happens, and like you said, grrrr. Bad mosquitos!! (in my case today)

I agree Elanorgold - grrr - bad mosquitos!  They don't bother me too much, but my husband really seems to attract them (maybe that's why they leave me alone!) and suffer from the bites.

So you have lots of wildlife ... I think I prefer my bunnies to your bears!!   I know deer are big eaters - many of the plants at the nursery comment on being "deer proof" - but I've not seen such a label as "bunny proof" 

We have bunnies, lots of bunnies, sometimes whole families of bunnies..

They eat my tulips and that makes me grumpy.

They entertain my dog...a springer spaniel that does his best to catch them but thankfully does not.

they sometimes are caught like a deer in the headlights...but they are bunnies..in the headlights of my car.

We also have wild cats...and those wild cats do tend to reduce the population of bunnies....and I wonder about the hawks that circle at times.

yes, they are cute.....i did wonder if free range bunnies would taste good on the hunting thread.

Hi carolla,

Judging by the description you have had cottontails.  Cottontails do not burrow nor do they keep a specific den unless they are birthing.  And even then the birthing den is typically a depression, lined with fur tufts pulled from the mother and hidden quite well in grass or even flower gardens.

We have this happen on our property on a regular basis and twice I have discovered the birthing nest in the lawn while I was mowing it.  The discovery, both times was surprising and happily without injury to any baby cottontails.

The good news is that the whelping and weaning of cottontails is very, very quickly done.  Odds are, since you have discovered the remnants of the birthing nest, that the cottontails have already been weaned.  The litter, typically five or six, will dissipate into the surrounding neighbourhood.

While they can be hard on a garden we have not found them to be as much of a nuisance as the local squirrels who dig up our bulbs or bury walnuts in our yard.  Of course we do not have large vegetable patches or gardens so it may be that our perennials of choice are not dietary favourites of the cottontail.

Our pup lab/hound cross did catch and dispatch an adult cottontail one spring for the most part they keep out of the dog's way.

For the most part we co-exist peacefully.  As mentioned above the hound in our pup Lily is very pronounced and she loves to chase.  Not being the most obedient dog in our pack she doesn't get out to far to explore our property.  The one she nabbed must have been inside the fenced portion of the yard and could not get out before Lily either caught her scent or saw her.  They seem content with the native plants and spend most of their time nibbling our grass or the odd weed.

Camoflage is the cottontail's first line of defence so it freezes when it senses a predator in the area.  Only if the predator gets too close will they bolt.  Our older male and female have both given chase and cottontails have easily given them the slip.

Grace and peace to you.

John

I don't have bunnies at my home in town, but I quite often see them along the road going to my cottage.  While I've seen them around my cottage lot, they don't seem to be eating my flowers or anything in my garden - of course I only have potatoes, onions, and radishes . . . probably not something they are interested in.

We have bunnies at the cottage.  I found a nest once in my peas and was so worried about the babies.  A trip to the library convinced me to leave them for the mother.  She only feeds them once daily for about 5 minutes and then just guards the nest from a distance.

They eat my beans and last night my hot peppers and my carrots.  The deer eat my spinach and tops of peas.

I have the beans covered in mesh and will add more to the peppers and carrots.  Not sure if the peppers will recover.  Last year taught me that carrots grow even if they have no tops.

I like the wildlife.  I just wish it would share my garden , which I work hard on, with me.

Bunnies in the garden . . . little foxie on the road . . .

I drove out to my cottage for the afternoon for a swim and to do some chores and on the way back a tiny little foxie ran across the road in front of me for a bit until he went off into the bush.  He wasn't a tiny baby, but he was pretty young . . . I've never seen a fox that wasn't full grown before.

Yes indeed - I think they are cottontails RevJohn - thanks for naming them.   We did see one in the garden a while back - and indeed it stayed still as could be for a long time before dashing off. 

The foxes sound amazing Beloved - but also fantastic that you can just nip out to your cottage for an afternoon swim!  Cottages around here are several hours drive away from home ... yours sounds perfect!

I have seen an occasional urban coyote, but not close enough to home to threaten the current bunnies.

Squirrels - yup - we had a good many of them too this year!  We have several bird feeders in the winter, so the squirrels come along to clean up & we usually co-exist with a few quite peacefully.  But we were really over-run this spring.  So my husband set up the "Last minute vacation club for squirrels" (aka his live trap cage) - and there were 22 lucky prize winners!  They went off to a lovely park near the river, but within the legal boundary for relocation of such rodents.   But now the bunnies ... grrr ...

Pinga - perhaps your springer would like to come for a visit? 

Can't think about bunnies without a nod to Monty Python ...

We have lots of wild rabbits in Edmonton. This year -with the higher than usual snow-theyate the bark off many trees. Killed my plum tree but my apple survived.

I nick name them 'Stew" but only in jest. My (13 lb) cat will keep them away when she is out.

We are the owners of dilapidated greenhouses, 4 of them, in our backyard (ok, it's a rather large yard).  We get wildcats living in them who do a good job on keeping rodents in line and entertaing our house cat.

Carolla, my springer would probably enjoy the visit but it is unlikely you would want to put up with the "i need to go out right now, yup, yup i do", every 20min which this dog does when the creatures are out & about.....think of an energetic toddler.

Python clip: Awwww, that makes me miss KillerRabbit, our neurology student, atheist poster of years gone.

Mosquitos are particularily bad this year with all the rain we've had. Just doing a bit of weeding this morning I had to use bug repellant, and they stung me through my sleeves too so anti itch cream on my arms after.

I offer you my services:  Omni - Bow hunter extraordinaire! Our motto is: "If it's the size of a squirrel of larger, you'll be having it for supper!"

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

ahem, that may explain why we haven't seen ez-ed lately!

Years ago we had a really bad year for hares.  There was no way those things could be mistaken for bunnies!   They were huge!  They growled at people and used to chase the dogs (and not just the little ones).

There's a decent number of rabbits at the U of A.  I think they are kind of cute.  Once, my husband came to pick me up when I was in the lab late.  He's mature in some ways, but he reminded me of a little toddler when he decided he had to chase a few of them.

We had skunks one year. Two families set up families under the verandah. After taking several hits, our dog finally moved them on in the spring... brave, smelly doggie!!!!