2009 Insects

By far the greatest number of creatures that you’ll find in your Backyard Zoo will be insects – ants, flies, mosquitoes, bees, bugs, beetles, butterflies, crickets, grasshoppers and more. This is because your backyard is a small slice of the world at large, which insects and other invertebrates have ruled for hundreds of millions of years.

Yesterday, I stumbled across this large European hornet struggling to hold on to a day lily leaf. It seemed like odd behavior to me, but it gave me the opportunity to photograph this creature in a somewhat unusual pose.

The European hornet is a large, aggressive member of the yellow-jacket family that was introduced to the United States in 1840. The first records of its presence come from New York, but its range now extends westward as far as the Dakotas and south as far as Florida and Louisiana. European hornets build large paper nests that tend to be located in tree cavities, not suspended from branches like nests of the bald-faced hornet. A typical colony will harbor several hundred workers.

It’s not likely that you’ll find the nest in your backyard, as these insects fly over great distances to find food. Prey species include crickets, grasshoppers, flies, butterfly and moth caterpillars, and even other yellow-jackets, hornets and wasps. Some people regard European hornets as pests, especially on summer and autumn evenings when these scary nocturnal predators are drawn to porch lights in search of an easy insect meal. Although hornets can deliver a painful sting, you need not consider them dangerous. Just back away a step or two and observe them from a short distance.

Eyes a Poppin’ and Ready for Hoppin’

We’re following the development of a cottontail rabbit nest in my backyard vegetable and herb garden. My wife discovered the nest a little more than a week ago. At birth, the six tiny “kittens” – which is how biologists refer to baby bunnies - were blind, deaf, hairless and helpless. Over a matter of only a few weeks, as you can see from the photo above, they have rapidly transformed into miniature versions of their parents. What’s remarkable about this transformation is that the mother rabbit has not shown herself to us once the entire time, but has managed to sneak back to her nest for a few minutes each night to nourish her young.

If you’ve also been exploring your own Backyard Zoo for evidence of rabbits and other native creatures, I’d like to offer just a few words of advice. Observe wild animals carefully and try not to disturb their natural behavior. For example, when my wife and I examine the rabbit nest and take photos to post on this blog, we tread lightly in the garden, remain quiet and probe the vegetation with great care. At some point, perhaps within only a few days, the young rabbits will be ready to leave their nest and disperse into the surrounding landscape, but we don’t want to frighten and send them into the outside world prematurely.

Once they do set out on their own, the six young animals will become potential meals for a variety of local predators. Being cute doesn’t count for much in the struggle for survival. In addition to owls, hawks, foxes and skunks, young rabbits can fall prey to our own cats and dogs. If only one kitten from this nest survives to adulthood that will be a lot. Cottontails breed two to four times each year, each litter can contain as many as eight young, and females are able to produce young in the first year of their lives. If the survival rate wasn’t low, our world would be overrun with rabbits.

In a few days, when the young rabbits disperse, we’ll begin searching the rest of our Backyard Zoo for other interesting creatures.

Raining Cats and Dogs on Rabbits

Last night the heavens opened up and the rain came down in buckets, so I was anxious to examine the rabbit nest this morning and see how my little “lagomorphs” were doing. Rabbits and hares are mammals belonging to the Order Lagomorpha along with another cute little critter - the pika - that makes its home high in the mountains of the American west.

Well, I needn’t have worried about the little bunnies. Despite the heavy rain, their garden patch wasn’t flooded at all and the nest appeared undisturbed. I peeled back the overhanging thyme plant to get a closer look. Their eyes weren’t open yet, but it was obvious that they had grown in size significantly in just a couple of days. Their heads were much larger, their ears were longer and their fur coats were heavier. I could only make out two heads clearly in the wriggling mass, each marked by a prominent white blaze. I don’t recall ever noticing a white patch on an adult cottontail’s forehead, so perhaps this marking disappears with age.

My wife was more concerned than I about last night’s rain, thinking that it might drown the babies. She’s also been a bit uptight because she hasn’t seen any evidence of the mother rabbit tending her young. My assurances gave her little comfort, so I had her read an article written by a veterinarian who routinely receives calls from people asking advice about caring for the “abandoned” bunnies in their backyard. The truth is that mother rabbits spend very little time with their young, typically returning to the nest only at night and then only for a few minutes to nurse them.

Got milk?

I’ll write again when the babies eyes open, which should only be a matter of a day or two. In the meantime, keep exploring your own backyard and let me know if you’ve found any evidence of nesting rabbits.

It’s Thyme for Rabbits

Each year my vegetable garden decreases in size. The surrounding trees grow taller and cast longer shadows on the soil. This makes it more difficult to grow sun-loving plants like lettuce, tomatoes, beans and squash. However, a couple of hardy herbs – oregano and thyme - have taken root and are taking over a corner of the garden.

The other day, my wife called me into the garden to have a look at the spreading bed of thyme. Smack in the middle of the plant was a shallow hole covered by a thin patch of greyish-brown fur, surrounded by a mass of tiny green leaves. Beneath the thin cover was a wriggling mass of baby cottontail rabbits. We looked around the yard but saw no evidence of the mother. Very carefully, we peeled away the protective covering for a closer look and counted five small heads. The young rabbits’ eyes were still closed, their skin resembled peach fuzz, and looked as though all five would fit very comfortably in the palm of your hand. After I snapped a couple of photos to document our discovery, we gently replaced the thin mat of hair that the mother rabbit had plucked from her own fur coat to protect her young, leaving the nest essentially undisturbed in anticipation of her return.

I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

If you’ve noticed cottontail rabbits hopping around your neighborhood, take a walk around your yard and search for possible nests in the grass, gardens and underbrush. If you do find a nest of baby rabbits, be careful not to disturb them, but keep an eye out for the mother and take some time each day to observe how the young develop.