I had wondered about why the rabbits around here don't seem to have a rabbit warren, and the answer is that they are not that kind of rabbit as they are 'cottontails'. Wikipedia says:
Many rabbits dig burrows, but cottontails and hispid hares do not. The European rabbit constructs the most extensive burrow systems, called warrens. Nonburrowing rabbits make surface nests called forms, generally under dense protective cover.
I remember seeing an enormous rabbit warren on a hillside in the Yorkshire Dales. I was chaperoning a school field trip. One of the boys was very excited when he saw the warren and shouted, "Oooh, miss! I wish I'd brought me ferrets - we could'a had rabbit for dinner!"
8 comments:
Second link is a hic-cup Petal!
Ooops! Should be fixed now.
I was blog surfing exploring different blogs when I came here, looked at your tagline, "... I find myself more American than I ever expected to be, yet not so American in many ways." - that's a good tagline.
I doubt I can live in the States for that long though.
Anyway, your post reminds me of two things:
(a) How to say Rabbit without "R"? It's bunnies :)
(b) And, rabbit stew, damn it, I want one now!
Hilarious! I can just imagine the school trip to the Dales - "Eee, lass. Nowt but bother, rabbits."
Mother Hen - I never expected to be in the USA this long!
We've probably lost one of the baby bunnies - it scarpered when I decided to let the neighbour's kids take a quick look at the bunnies. Not sure if it ever came back. We're pretty sure the mother rabbit did though, as the bunnies were very nicely tucked back in this morning and the twigs I'd put over their hole had been rearranged.
We spent half an hour this evening watching an adult rabbit grazing on the lawn - it seemed to know we were there but was apparently completely unconcerned.
The baby bunny that scampered away seems to be just fine. I was mowing the lawn this evening and it made a bee-line out of an island of plantings and into the woods. Seemed pretty healthy to me!
How sweet to have a 'rabbit's nest' in your garden. i just hope there aren't any cats about.
We don't seem to have any cats around any more . . . what with the busy road nearby, and coyotes too! There was a cat that I think was feral (or turning feral) that used to hang out on our front step in the afternoons, but I haven't seen it around in a while.
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