Foxes and Bunnies and Birds, Oh My!

My sister emailed me this week- she came home one evening and a fox family was playing in the yard. The parents ran into the brush when her car pulled up but the 2 kits kept playing. They romped around for about 10 minutes before disappearing in the bushes. They've come back once since then around dusk to play in her yard. My sister is a bird lover, she has feeders and birdhouses all over. She was so excited to see that bluebirds were building a nest in her bluebird box. She checked later and there were eggs in the nest. The eggs hatched and she had a bunch of babies. Unfortunately, as the week progessed the babies weren't doing too well. She just called and said that none of them has made it. Very sad. It's been very cold for the past few days-high 30's (F) during the night and mid 50's during the day. She didn't think the parents were able to find enough bugs and other critters to feed the babies.

I have a garden related wildlife issue this week- I was moving my tomato seedlings to the garden earlier this week and Bodie kept trying to get into the vegetable garden. The only thing that's planted in there right now is lettuce- I figured he couldn't wreak too much havoc so I let him in and I went back to get more tomato plants from the side of the house. I came back to the garden and Bodie is outside the gate with something in his mouth. UH-OH- I tell him to drop it, which he does (shock and amazement) and he's got a mouthfull of fur that he's trying to spit out. So naturally the next thing I do is start screaming for my husband. Long story short- I put Bodie inside and got my husband a grocery bag and he picks up unidentified object previously in Bodie's mouth and notices that it's a baby bunny- remarkably unscathed but totally freaked out. So we start poking around the garden to try to figure out where he came from and we find a warren lined with fur under a pile of leaves. We put the bunny back in and covered him up. Husband isn't too psyched to have a bunch of rabbits living in the garden but what can we do? We should have dug up the garden sooner and turned the leaves under. Now were kind of stuck until the bunnies move out (which may never happen since they have a nice supply of lettuce in there) I think there are 4-6 babies in there, Bodie and I saw their little faces peeking out yesterday. I really need to get the garden put in.

On a non-wildlife related note: I got my Japanese Maple this week, "Green Cascade" a nice healthy looking 3-4 year old tree from the farmer's market. $50- good deal. I planted the Dahlia's I had started indoors on Sunday. The weather has been really cold (it snowed on Monday in Buffalo) but they seem to be doing ok. I also planted 2 more roses (Distant Drums a Buck rose and Gruss an Aachen) I got them from Heirloom roses-own root and bare root, very healthy. My Winchester Cathedral that I planted a few weeks ago is looking really good. I planted 2 Lady's Mantle that I got at the farmers market too. They look thirsty, I need to water them in the morning. Captain Sam, Eden, & Heritage all have buds. My salvia is also budding and should bloom soon. The crocosmia is starting to poke up through the soil. Nothing is really blooming in my yard right now except the Paul Thirion and Beauty of Moscow lilacs, and lily of the valley are blooming too. My mom's lilac is out in full force (she's zone 5 so a little later than we are)-gorgeous I was at her house last Sunday and we cut some blooms. I posted a picture-