Just
the other day I peeked out my window and saw so may rabbit tracks in the fresh
snow that I determined that either one or two bunnies had been really busy, or
else a herd of about fifty of the little guys had stampeded past our place
without our knowing.
There
is quite a healthy population of wild jack rabbits out there, and right now
they’re all in their finest whites.
They
don’t seem to put in too many appearances this time of year. Probably they’re
wisely tucked in their cozy little burrows, protected from the cutting winds a
good deal of the time.
But
in another way, they’re even more visible now than they are in the summer. They’re
always hopping all over creation no matter the time of year. They’re not
hibernators. It’s just this time of year that they leave behind a map.
It’s
fun to watch their tracks criss-cross yards and fields and follow paths. Sometimes
they pass once and don’t come around again. Other times you can see where they
pick a favored trail and follow it over and over until they’ve pounded down a
deep, firm trough in the snow. In some places you can see their tracks venture
out onto the surfaces of frozen lakes, or rivers, never once faltering on the
slick ice. In other places, you can see teems of paw-prints dancing around a
single tree, selected as a favorite to cuddle under.
Phew!
All that running around and exploring is bound to make anyone tired. When a
wild rabbit needs a sit-down, he’ll plop himself wherever he happens to stand.
As he sits there, his warm little body will melt the snow beneath him, creating
a little crater or dish-like concave in the snow. Sometimes they’ll pick a spot
and come back to sit there over and again and until they’ve made themselves a
very distinguished little cubby hole. One time we must have had about two feet
of snow in the back yard, and one of our little friends made a snow crater just
about down to the grass. From the sidewalk, you actually had to stand on
tippy-toe to see if anyone was home.
But,
as much fun as it is to read the stories they leave in the snow, and learn
about their private lives, a real face-to-face sighting can still be the most
exciting.
I
walked home, one dusky winter evening a few years ago, enjoying the peace and
quiet. Suddenly -- Wham! -- a rabbit exploded out of nowhere, tearing across
the street to the park on the other side! It startled me so sharply that I
cried out and nearly fell over backward. Where had he come from?
When
I followed his tracks backwards all the way to his snow crater, I realized he
had only been sitting a short distance from me in plain view! In his white
winter clothes, I hadn’t even seen him until I got too close and he decided to
run! That’s a really effective camouflage technique! Mother Nature sure does
provide for her little animals.
So
keep your eyes out for the animals' messages. And when you walk by, perhaps
step over the rabbit’s trail so you can keep up with his latest adventures.
This little fellow staked out this tree as his own and stayed for several weeks.
Comments