MORE RABBIT

       Can you stand another jack rabbit story? Well you're going to get one.

       Jack rabbits are very often in my yard. Sometimes one will visit my   yard daily for six weeks in a row. Jack rabbits are mainly nocturnal so they find a safe place to hang out in the daytime. They  doze, groom, nibble and take short walks. They also have an instinctive way of positioning themselves for safety. They make sure that their back end is up against something like a rock , fence or brush. This protects them from a predator attacking from the rear.

      The other hot evening a rabbit was peacefully laying on the loose soil in my garden. Two magpies showed up and were picking up food. The rabbit sort of watched them but when one magpie got too  close the rabbit got up  and the magpie moved away. The magpie came back again and this time the rabbit got up and moved a few feet. The rabbit leisurely stretched and the magpie saw the opportunity to line up behind the rabbit in the blind spot. As quick as lightning the magpie moved to peck the rabbit on his behind. That got the rabbit's attention and he made haste to leave my yard.

    I have never heard about any incidents such as this.

CATCHING UP?

      Some of the blogs I follow show many excellent murals on buildings. It seems that wall murals are very common in Europe and they have some excellent artists.

     So what a surprise a few days ago when I was downtown and saw a major mural project. It will take us a long time to catch up to other places with murals.

     It looks like more murals are planned so you might see some more photos here.

             

                 Magpies would be a good subject here . Enlarge and read the information. The artist some how or other did not use the lower left of the space?  Some guy tried to help out with the empty space by parking is car in front of the empty space. 

 

      Now I really like this mural. The space was well used and I wonder what the person is thinking about? Freedom?

                  This mural is a waste of paint unless the building owner just wanted a paint job.

SQUIRREL MAGPIE FEUD

     July is an interesting time of year to watch Red squirrels.  As I said in my last post they are setting up territory and there's some competition. Sometimes the competitions are a bit odd.

     I do my stretching so that I can look out my front room window. I have a bird feeder out in the front yard so it gives me a few minutes to watch the bird feeder and anything else that happens.

     So a few days ago an event took place. For some reason a Red squirrel was harassing a magpie. The squirrel would chase the magpie and the magpie would just keep ahead of the squirrel. There seemed to be a half dozen short sprints where the squirrel pursued the magpie. The magpie would hide under  car and as soon as he came out the squirrel would chase.

    Now a few years ago I saw a different squirrel magpie confrontation. This time there were two magpies and they had a Red squirrel cornered. The squirrel was on the tree trunk and one magpie was above and the other one below the squirrel. The squirrel wanted to gain the branches of the tree where it would be safe. The magpies were hoping the squirrel would make just one mistake and they would have lunch. The squirrel shifted from one side of the tree to another. He couldn't get up or down.

    Finally the squirrel took a leap from the tree trunk and set off across the yard and street. The magpies flew above the squirrel, but as long as they were in the air the squirrel was safe. The squirrel ran under a fence and it threw the magpies off their game. They just thought the squirrel somehow disappeared and didn't realize the squirrel was on the other side of the fence.

   So the squirrel magpie competition goes both ways.

Photo by Bill Heinsen