Baby rabbits

I am wearing a really huge smile right now.

I live in the middle of London, and rabbits are not an uncommon sight.  They'll burrow under sheds and such and come out in the early evening or morning and munch on your lamb's ear that you planted, or your vegetable garden, so your guess that the den is close is probably a good one, Webgear.

It's a regular Mutual of Omaha's wild Kingdom here in the middle of town.   Rabbits, racoons, deer, skunks, falcons, hawks, turkeys, turkey vultures, herons and all manner of song birds.

Did the vet advise releasing him, Webgear? I can imagine that's best.

Our vet at BnR hasn't shown up today. If/when she does, I'll still bring her advice back here.

And yes, good luck, Peter.

No, you weren't in fact.    The cat thought of it first.

Cats will be cats, Webgear.   Spike catches mice regularly and that's okay, but he takes birds too.    Last year I was amused to see the return of a transient Swainson's Thrush which had seemed to stop here for a few weeks in the fall.  I have no idea if it was the same individual, but one always returns.

Spike got him last year.     And, when birds fledge Spike usually gets a few.    We have a robbin's nest next door, close enough to see the young robins poking thier heads up.  The male and female regularly follow Spike, announcing his whereabouts.   But I think he'll get the one that isn't quite ready to fly when it leaves the nest.

Pants-of-dog wrote:

Am I the only one who thought of eating it?

Not that Webgear should have. Letting the rabbit go is far more humane.

I was consulting some documentation ( http://www.linternaute.com/femmes/cuisine/recette-lapin/ ) while waiting for Webgear to kindly finish nurturing the baby rabbit and once grown up release it to my pans and pots wilderness.

He stalks them, and tags them on the tail, but I've watched him pass up clear chances to go in for the kill.   My guess is that squirels present too much of an injury risk for him to take on for real.

Pity, that.

bagkitty wrote:

Guess I have to keep hoping that a pine marten (or similar weasel like creature) will move in and take up residence...

[ETA: thought I should point that the problem squirrels I am dealing with are not native to the area, they are Eastern Grey Squirrels that were introduced to the region in the late 1930s. I have zero sentimental feelings towards them.]

Webgear wrote:

[...]

Have you thought about live trapping them and releasing them into the wild?

Mixed reactions here... part of me wants to laugh and part of me wants to shake a finger at you while scolding you.

1) the laughing part - been to Calgary lately? To the east, north and south of the city it is, essentially, bald prairie. I guess releasing a squirrel (particularly an arboreal species like the Eastern Grey Squirrel, which are the buggers I am talking about) would be an interesting way to feed the hawks (as opposed to burying the squirrels and feeding the rose bushes) but not much else.

2) the shaking a scolding finger part - I have researched the matter a little, six mating pairs of these Eastern Grey Squirrels were actually released by the Calgary Zoo in about 1938 to see if they would establish themselves along the Elbow River (um, the answer is YES*) - they are not a species native to the area. While we have a number of indigenous ground squirrels (including the ubiquitous Richardson Ground Squirrel... the gopher) there are only two arboreal squirrels native to the area, Northern Flying Squirrels and Pine Squirrels (also called North American Red Squirrels) and Calgary was at the extreme edge of their range (that whole prairie thing again). Both do not compete well (for nesting sites in the case of flying squirrels and for food in the case of pine squirrels) with the much larger, much more aggressive introduced grey squirrel. "Catching and releasing" the greys to the west of the city (the area that is not bald prairie) would increase pressure on the already threatened native species and strikes me as an essentially sentimental way of dealing with the great grey squirrel question.

I think violating city by-laws is the preferable solution. Of course the hawks cruising the prairies might disagree, but I don't want to get them hooked on fast (if bushy tailed) food.

---------

* although maybe I should qualify the yes... the area they were actually released is a bit of a wildlife corridor, and there are a lot of coyotes living along the banks of the river... especially the steep-banked parts close to downtown. You very seldom see squirrels there... they tend to be found in residential areas where guillible people feed, shelter and protect them.

skdadl: well the old districts have matured a bit... fifty years has been long enough for a few trees in the yards to become TREES, with canopies big enough to make squirrel highways blocks long. At least we don't have raccoons.

Yet...

bagkitty wrote:

skdadl: well the old districts have matured a bit... fifty years has been long enough for a few trees in the yards to become TREES, with canopies big enough to make squirrel highways blocks long. At least we don't have raccoons.

Yet...

I saw a young racoon try to climb the steel pole that holds my two silo feeders for birds.   He couldn't do it, of course.  Cute little fellow.  

I don't have a problem with sharing the neighborhood with racoons.   They're okay-- as long as your attic and chimney is secure, as well as your garbage. And you don't have neighbors that feed them.  I've seen news reports of people in Toronto leaving dog dishes full of food scraps out for the racoons.    Bad idea.  One racoon per couple of city blocks is interesting and nice to have around.  Twenty is an infestation you don't want.

Skunks can be problematic, but you know even the one time I accidentally got real close to one at night in my backyard, he (or she) gave me enough warning that it didn't come to a spraying incident.   When I've wanted one to leave my yard, all I've had to do is ask it nicely:  Like, "hey, I think it's time to go, buddy."   And, they'll go... sort of in thier own time.   I think skunks have a thing about saving face.

The thing with skunks is that they'll have several burrows or places to hold up in, in thier territory.   Seeing one in daylight might just mean it got disturbed as someone had to do work under their porch which hadn't been accessed by people for twenty years, or took down an old storage shed it was under.  

The worst incident involving a skunk I know of happened, geez, about 25 years or more ago, when my ex and I rented a house near the river in the east end here.   A neighbour's little girl, about four or five went to get her trike from under the porch, and inadvertantly scared a skunk.  The skunk sprayed her full on at point blank in the face.

They rushed her to hospital and she was lucky not to have been blinded or have some permanent vision impairment. 

Oh my, you won't believe this.  

But, as I finished that last sentence I stepped outside for a smoke, and to think of something else to bore the pants off you with, and watched Spike go into the side door of the garage... and seconds later a skunk come out!   They had to have passed each other by inches... without incident.  (!?)

I was about to ask it to leave, when Zoetheevilandsataniccatfromthedeepestpitsofhell meowed loudly in the kitchen (it was, after all, ten minutes since her last feeding) which got the skunk's tail up pretty quick, as it didn't really know where the meow came from (hell, Mr. Skunk, the meow came from the darkest pits of despair in hell)   but the skunk settled down, and I asked it to leave and it did.