Sharing with the animals

"I hate robins."  As surprising as it first sounded, I understood and smiled.  The man talking is a grape breeder and owner of a back yard vineyard.  Robins love ripe grapes and are not easily chased off.

I have a daily watch out for rabbits invading my backyard.  This spring there were two nests in two different raised beds.  One had six baby rabbits for a few days.  A week later, I checked and they had died.  My conscious if free on this one, I was on standby during the period.

Cedar fencing six feet high completely surrounds my backyard, it is anchored to the house on the left side and the right side.    This would be the standard protection against most animals but surprisingly there is variety of animals that visit regardless of the fencing.

At noon on Monday while eating lunch I notice a rabbit in the middle of my back lawn munching on the fresh green lawn.  I immediately went to the back door, grabbed a couple sticks to make noise and started to chase the rabbit.  The key is to chase the rabbit to find the entrance point and pug it up.  This dumb rabbit ran to the left side of the house and found no exit and quickly run the fence to the back and up the right side of the fence.  Now I watched him near the clothline and felt at at last he will exit the yard.  NO!  he could not find his way out.  He turned toward me and run under the tool shed and found refuge.  I gave up. 

Oh, the list of sightings is endless, Tuesday morning, three rabbits front yard, Wednesday one first yard, one back yard, last Saturday three at one time in the backyard around eight in the morning, same day evening five o'clock one back yard.  As fast as I pug up a entrance they tunnel a new one.

Besides, the rabbits I have one squirrel that runs the top of the cedar fence daily.  His routine is to check out for any dropped crack corn or seeds around the tool shed that may have missing the pile going to the chickens.  Mice and a chipmunk are occasionally seen in the same area.   As soon as the weather gets warmer, I hope my garden snakes return and lounges along the  back fence on the warm rocks that have been placed there to keep the rabbits out.  The occasionally snake sighting is encouraging for me because they keep down slugs, mice and hopefully scare off others.

The number of birds in my backyard fine until the strawberries and blueberries are ripe.  I cover the blueberries, the strawberries are beyond thinking about.  When my grapes are ripe I put out the plastic owl and move it every couple days.  Mostly, I smile about sharing with the birds.  The humming birds darting around makes up for all the consumption of the other birds. 

I was thinking about  my wildlife and what is happening in the gulf of Mexico.  I am moved to sadness and rage.

All of it haven't changed my mind about rabbits, though, "I don't like rabbits."