Peter rabbit cottontail...

Hopping down the bunny trail.

So get this: this picture was taken a mere 3ft away from this rabbit. How did I accomplish that you ask? Am I secretly a stealthy hunter? Did that month horsepacking teach me some uber skills at tracking? Sadly, no. But this means it's story time!

I was outside in the garden doing garden-y things when I heard this rustling in the brush in my backyard. I looked down the hill to watch this rabbit race up my backyard and stop about ten feet from me, obviously in some distress. I had my camera with me (thankfully!) so after taking some shots from far away (see below) I slowly started walking closer.

I got to about 3ft away from the rabbit and I started snapping away. Unfortunately at this point there was some more commotion in the woods at the bottom of the hill and the rabbit took off. However, I looked down the hill to see what I at first thought was a black cat digging at something ...and I immediately started thinking 'did Charlie somehow get outside?'. But I quickly saw that A) the 'cat' had four legs (so no Charlie) and that B) the tail was MUCH bushier than a cat's tail would be. At this point I realized that I was looking at a fox, but it was very dark, not sure if this was because it was under the shade of trees or if it was just a really dark gray fox. It was clearly after something, but once I started walking towards it, it ran off. 

Sadly, I wasn't quick enough to get any fox pictures. But I did walk down the hill to find out what it was after... baby rabbits! I didn't get any pictures of the rabbits because they were at the age where they can literally die from fright, so once I saw what they were and their age, I got out of there.

I've been keeping an eye out for Mama Rabbit, but I haven't seen her since that first episode. No surprise though, as cottontail rabbits are highly fear driven and stay away from people. Also have kept an eye out for Mr. (or Mrs.) Fox and I haven't seen him/her either.