Monday, December 14, 2009

Snowy surprise

We see them mostly in the empty fields over by our new church. Hundreds of them, laying in the fallow fields, the lucky ones at least. Others succomb to the wheels of passing cars, or the hunting prowess of the hawks that circle the fields.

At first glance you may mistake them for a rabbit or a bunny of some sort. But they aren't. Look closely and you'll see the long and floppy ears that look too big for their heads, and gargantuan feet of equally disproportionate size. They are white jack rabbits, or hares. The difference between a hare and a rabbit is that a hare's babies are born with fur and their eyes are open. Rabbits are born without fur, and their eyes are closed, leaving them dependent on their mother's care for awhile.

Ironically, I wanted pictures of the snow falling as big fluffy flakes floated down from the sky. But when Colton and I looked at the pictures we were shocked to see a jack rabbit nestled next to the neighbor's fire ring.  We set out to see if we could get closer to it and as we did we were even more surprised to find three others lying under the branches of the evergreen tree.  We were still yards away when they heard our crunching boots in the snow and they scattered.




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17 comments:

  1. OH!!!!! They are SO cute!!! I had no idea bunnies (if I can call them that?) stayed around in such prolific numbers in the snow. That's shows you what a dumb Californian I am. Did I think they caught a train to Arizona in the winter or hibernated? Not sure I gave it much thought but now I know they live in snow covered lumps on flat ground!

    Thank you for the darling photos and lessons for school (for ME!). :)

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  2. Now if these photos aren't beautiful, then beauty 'ain't' a word.
    I love these, Vicky!
    What a pleasant surprise for you to see the bunnies in the photos...
    This is like a wonderland to me.
    Warm hug,
    Jackie

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  3. Like a Winters Wonderland at your house. I love the shot of the 2 sitting up, great.

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  4. Wow they are everywhere, funny what our eyes but the lens doesn't, what a nice surprise to find them in your photo.

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  5. How cool! They're sooo big! And I'm jealous that you guys got snow!

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  6. Wow - looks like a whole little family living nearby!! They are so cute - your son must have been excited to see them.

    You are living in a winter wonderland out there, too.

    Do you get a break from skating over the holidays, or does it just intensify because the kids are off of school?

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  7. Oh wow! Such beauty all around you! I wish we were neighbors....except I don't really like snow!!!!

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  8. That is so cool! Awesome captures with your camera. =0)

    I don't get THOSE kind of scenes down here in TX.

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  9. Oh how precious! It would make my day to see those in my yard!

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  10. Wow they are really big, not the average wild bunny.

    Thanks so hard for trying to promote my Etsy site. I don't know how to do the button thing. I thought maybe I could post the html code in the test gadget and people could copy it, but it wouldn't show up.

    Another option is jut to copy the Tookie picture ( the lady in blue) on my crochet life blog and put that in as a picture gadget with a link to my Etsy site. I need to figure out how to do the button thing, where people can copy the script. Oh well.

    Thanks for the encouragement and I'm so glad you like my things.

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  11. I had to look at your pictures twice. I kept thinking, are those really rabbits? They are sooooo big.

    Enjoy your snow, it's here to stay!

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  12. Those are just great pictures. {Thank you for stopping at Hope's blog and leaving a comment for her. I really appreciate it.}

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  13. They are so cute! I love their white color (snow bunnies). When we lived in Arizona, I remember see the brown jack rabbits there and they were huge too!

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  14. WOW...lucky you !
    I have never seen those...even out at our cottage...never !

    wow....I'm so jealous !

    thanks for sharing :)

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  15. These photos are amazingly beautiful!!! Love these shots...and I LOVE hares!!! What a wonderful capture!!! Love you, Janine XO

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  16. The snow looks lovely. How cute to see those hares. My kids would have loved it!

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  17. Bunnies in the snow! Does it get any better than that?

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