Rabbit

Last night I heard and then watched the cardinal parents making a noise new to me, a sort of loud quick cluck, and which I gathered they were using to coax their babies to fly into a dense thorny shrub at the corner of the house, backed up against our bedroom window. When I first heard the sound, I actually thought someone was hitting a stick against the ground out on the bike path. I was able to observe them for quite some time. The babies wouldn't budge, remaining in the yaupon holly. They took off for the viburnum patch when I stepped out for an evening walk (heading over to Myles Dr to see if I could see the hawk nest that our postman, Al, mentinoed). Parents quickly followed. They moved around the yard in the evening and eventually were quiet for the night.

This morning I heard nothing from the cardinals, adults or babies, and hope they are okay. Maybe they went to another yard for something new. But we had 3 or 4 catbirds singing in the viburnum patch and around 9am, when I was washing dishes, here came the rabbit. Spence is right, the rabbit does not have much of a tail, so maybe it is a marsh rabbit and not a cottontail. He's been around nibbling on I don't know what for about a half hour now. I want to go out in the yard and work a little bit at least, before it gets too hot, but I don't want to disturb the rabbit, who I am sure has a less flexible schedule than I do.