About Me

My photo
Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of 4 small primates. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Magnificent ears

Black-tailed jackrabbit pauses on a trail.
Take a moment to admire those truly amazing ears.

They're movable, portable and work better than these.

5 comments:

Hugh Griffith said...

Damn. I just bought a pair of those.

PBurns said...

Love this post!

Also loved the grey fox and owl on the rocks pics.

Love a lot more posts, too, but I don't want to sound gushy.

Hats off!

Patrick

Anonymous said...

He's struck a cute pose with those big ears of his! Awww.... Marilyn Harris

suek said...

I keep horses along a riverbed, on a property that is about 20-30 feet above the riverbed. We also have a doberman who _loves_ to run, so we take her down daily and run her around the road there for about 2.5 miles a day (twice a day on weekends). She watches for coyotes, and gets very aggressive if she sees one - which concerns me, but so far she's been good about coming when called, which we do as soon as she gets that "attitude". We also apparently have had some chickens dropped off, and they're living in the bamboo (and I know it isn't really bamboo, but I keep forgetting the correct name, and it grows and looks like bamboo) and brush on the side going down to the riverbed.
All of which is to set the scene for a surprise I had the other day...the dog watches for the little live things, but isn't inclined to actually go after them into the brush. She normally flushes out cottontails, ground squirrels, a roadrunner or two, and various birds...but the other day...! It took me a moment to react, but the rabbit she flushed was _white_!! Somebody has dropped off a domestic rabbit. It hasn't been there long - I've had horses in the same location for some 20 years now and have never seen a white rabbit. I think I saw some ferrets once, but never a white rabbit. It zipped through some fence bars and down into the brush, so she wasn't even close...but I wonder how long he's going to last. The brush is thick enough that he _might_ avoid being seen by the coyotes, the resident hawk or the feral cats...but I suspect his chances are slim. We used to have owls stopping in nightly, but they cut down the trees they used to stop in, and I haven't seen them recently.

I wonder if I'll see him again! My husband's immediate reaction was "don't follow that white rabbit down into his hole!!"...minds follow funny tracks!

Tami Weingartner said...

the better to hear you with...