Spring Critter Update

It has been a lovely spring day here in Superior and our afternoon temps have climbed into the mid-seventies. I got out on my bike early this morning and got some nice pictures of birds against the bright blue sky.

I saw a family of geese over at Barker’s Island and our back yard bunnies have been doing what bunnies do, so now it is baby bunny season. We count the bunnies as a major success in our back yard ecosystem, we had a problem with a colony of rats that were nesting under the back yard bike shed. We try to get along with all creatures, but the rats crossed the line when they chewed into the shed and then chewed the grips off Christine’s bike. We live-trapped relocated some rats and I wound up killing a couple with my Daisy air rifle (and I did not shoot my eye out!). But it was the bunnies that really won the war of the rats, they took over the burrow under the shed and we haven’t seen any rats in the past year. Christine feeds the rabbits and squirrels and they have figured out that we aren’t a threat to them. I’m pretty sure that the healthy population of rabbits and squirrels is keeping too much seed from building up under the bird feeders and the rats have moved on to some place with less competition. Some folks say that squirrels are just rats with fuzzier tails, but our squirrels are smart enough to leave the bikes alone.

The bunnies and the squirrels mostly get along, but sometimes they fight over carrots. An adult bunny packs a hell of a kick so the squirrels have learned to avoid direct confrontation, but will steal an unguarded carrot if they have a chance and then run up a tree or hide the carrot some place that they think is safe from the bunnies.