Cinnamon’s Big Night

Well, it was a very exciting night last night for Cinnamon. We went to watch Non Birding Bill do his children's theater show at a park near where we live. She was doing well and I was keeping an eye on all the people who were letting their dogs off leash when I noticed a distant Cooper's hawk. The hawk was bombing some smaller birds on the other side of the park. Cinnamon didn't seem to notice (she usually doesn't--when I've taken her to The Raptor Center, she seems oblivious to all the predatory leering). As the crowds of families assembled Cinnamon tested the limits of the leash to check them out and to see if they had any treats for her.

I love this photo. that little boy wants to pet her, but even he senses the disapproval. She did eventually relent and many kids got to pet her. However, once the show got underway, I heard a few warbler alarm calls and right over the crowd, right over my head, barely to the tops of the trees flew a Cooper's hawk!

Cinnamon did what I call her Dirty Dozen walk, where she slinks as low to the ground as she can and made her way to me and then hunkered. I'd like to think it was because she sees me as safe, but perhaps she was trying to camouflage herself with my pink and brown skirt? It's interesting that she sensed the danger this time. Was it because the hawk was so low, is she finally noticing outdoor bird warning calls? Does she notice the difference between the tethered birds at The Raptor Center from a free flying one?

The Cooper's landed in the tree in the above photo at about 11 o'clock towards the back. As soon as it landed we heard a red squirrel give it's angry trill. I never saw it leave and Cinnamon sat glued to that spot next to my leg for most of the performance. Towards the end she relaxed and meandered about again. I don't think the hawk was making a series pass for Cinnamon. There were far too many people about for it to make a serious dive at her. I do think it was taking a look, because all raptors are opportunists. Another reason I'm glad I keep her on her leash.

Blogger Video--Gr

So, Sunday I noticed a new feature on my blog dashboard. I can upload video directly to blogger instead of google video. So, I took a little video of Cinnamon to check it out. I can't upload it and have heard nothing from blogger for three days so I just went to google video myself to load it up. Now, I'm off to one of my MANY state fair shift. I took some bunny photos on Saturday when Non Birding Bill and I went as a date, but Cinnamon insists that I put them in her blog, not mine...

Here's my MN State Fair schedule this week. MOU stands for the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union. If you're at the fair, stop by and ask us about birds.

Tuesday, August 28

9am - 12pm - The Raptor Center
12pm - 3pm - MOU Booth at DNR Building

Wednesday, August 29
9:15am - 11am - KARE 11 Booth (tv segment)

Thursday, August 30
9am - 12pm - MOU Booth at DNR Building

Saturday, September 1
9am - 12pm - MOU Booth at DNR Building

Cinnamon potpurri

In lieu of a post today, I present a series of miscellaneous Cinnamon pictures. The insects done wore me out.


Cinnamon is a Castor Rex, bred for their fur, which is very soft. Wild rabbits have a combination of long and short hair. Cinnamon's is all short.

She's a curious rabbit, and by that, I mean she likes to explore. Sometimes I worry she gets too bored, so we try to take her out to the park when it's not too hot, or into the hallway to let her stretch her legs. Most of the other rabbits we've had were content with the apartment, but Cinnamon likes to explore.


It took us forever to find a treat that she liked. I don't know what her life was like before we got her from the shelter (we were told the previous owners had a baby, which is why they gave her up), but we couldn't get Cinnamon to take any treats at all. It was weird.

Then one day some dried cranberries spilled on the floor and she snarfed them up like a vacuum cleaner. That was when the penny dropped and she realized that HUMANS COULD BE A SOURCE OF FOOD!
Which was all well and good until she also realized that the food came from the kitchen, the one area we don't want her to go into it, since that's where the trash is.
Combined with her naturally curious nature, it's becoming sort of a game for her to see how close she can go into the kitchen before we yell, and--more importantly--get up. When we shout, she'll pause for a moment and look back to see if we're getting up. If we don't, she just keeps on doing what she's doing. But if we get up, then she knows we mean business and she scampers off. Until she thinks we're not paying attention.

She's lost a lot of weight in the last year, which has made her even more active.

When Sharon wanted to put up a section of rabbit photos on her (then) new website, I thought it was a dumb idea. This was a site about wildlife after all; why put up pictures of domestic rabbits? Who'd wanna look at that?

"Disapproving rabbits" was the last thing I put up, and grudgingly. Joke's on me! Especially when the book comes out in October.

Okay, I'm off to read some Gene Wolfe and veg. We will hopefully have a more coherent post tomorrow.

For Teageeare

Who tells me that I don't put enough Kabuki in the blog:
Here is my cranky little cockatiel, eyeing my inbox, hoping I will not notice if he pulls out and chews some paper. He and Cinnamon are about to go an a small adventure. We're going to dog sit for the next few days and we're bringing the pets with us.

I can't believe blogging escaped from me for a couple of days--it turned much busier here than I had anticipated. Next weekend should be about the same. I took Cinnamon with me to Carpenter Nature Center on Friday. I got an email a few weeks ago from some blog readers who said they might join us for banding. They asked if Cinnamon would be there and originally I had said no, but Thursday night and Friday morning, she was doing all those things that say, "Hey, mom, I need some stimulation." ie - digging in her litter box and sneaking into the kitchen. So, on went her leash and she went with me to Carpenter and found a whole slew of new things to disapprove of.

Even though we can still get her to put on the leash and harness without too much of a fuss doesn't mean she tries to chew and whip it off when she thinks I'm not looking.

We're getting in quite a few of the summer residence. Above is a male robin we have had in the nets twice this summer. You can tell he is male by the dark head and the darker rusty breast. Boy, he really looks unhappy in this photo.

We also got in this hairy woodpecker. Notice anything strange about him? Check out his red patch--it's on the front of his head and not the back--a way you can tell if the bird just hatched this year when it is at your feeder.

Cinnamon was not as impressed with all the banding going on and was way more interested in exploring all the prairie grasses. Just by hopping in a few feet, she would completely disappear.

Apart from the leash, the only other way you could tell she was in there was by watching a tall piece of grass waver for a moment and then fall over as she had chewed its stalk. She was almost on sensory overload with the abundance of chewables at her feet.

To a blade of grass, she's kind of a scary looking monster. Afterwards, she kept me company as i scouted for a field trip that I was leading on Saturday. Which I will blog about later tonight. Right now, I have to go out and check on the bee situation...have I prevented a swarm...will the Olga hive be ready for a queen excluder...what wonderful bee adventures will I encounter this week?

Warning: Intense Bunny Nose At The End of This Post

I have a backlog of blog entries.

I was going to do some catch up today but found out that I'm actually supposed to be in North Dakota Wednesday instead of Thursday. The downside is that means I have less time to get work done at home this week, but on the upside I have a whole extra day of prairie birding--WHOOT! On top of that I get to hang with Bill of the Birds and Julie Zickefoose--Double Whoot!!

I've had some private emails asking how Cinnamon was after our scare last week and let me tell ya', she is A Okay. She's been getting extra ear strokes and nuzzling. She has even worn her harness again with no ill affects.

She tries to act like she doesn't approve of all the petting, but she's enjoying it.

And for proof, I offer a truly rare photo: intense contented bunny nose. Go ahead, beep that nose through the computer screen. You know you want to. Plus, it's the only safe way to do it.

On to uploading the cool kingbird video for the next entry.

Disapproving Rabbits Band Aid

Okay, Disapproving Rabbit fans, I know the disapproval entries have been slow this spring--but hey, that's how the bird readers of the blog feel in winter when the birding is slow and I load up on Cinnamon entries. So, here's a little Cinnamon report:

I took Cinnamon with us this weekend--she did not go with us out to the bee hives but did get some quality time with Non Birding Bill and myself--whether she wanted it or not. We brought along her leash and did a good job of keeping her away from Cabal the Wonder Dog. I was sitting outside with her and had her on her extra long leash. We attached her leash to the legs of a trampoline and I sat with her, just in case she got tangled. Someone who had never met Cinnamon came down to experience the disapproval and when Cinnamon had had enough of people stroking her velvety soft fur, she hopped away.

As she hopped away, I noticed the leash was loosely wrapped around her back paw. Not wanting her to get tangled, I crawled over to move the leash. Cinnamon must have thought I was going to grab her and take her in, because she ran the other direction and sure enough, the loop acted as a noose on her back paw. When a rabbit is scared, they panic and try to get away in any way possible--this can help save them by making a last minute jump away from a golden eagle, or in the case of Cinnamon--tangle her up further.

Cinnamon then tried to jump in every direction and squirm out of her harness, which somehow wedged the whole front section of her body into the harness, binding her front paws...that's when I heard the sound no rabbit owner ever wants to hear--the rabbit scream. I tried to twist around and grab Cinnamon but she kept going around behind me and hopping up my back--she was slippery and I couldn't grab her. The screaming and the idea that Cinnamon could be breaking bones tangled in the leash boiled panic in my mind. I forced myself to try to keep calm and just take time to do it right. I finally grabbed hold of Cinnamon (still screaming) and asked for a knife to cut her out of the harness. But before anyone could move, I found the quick release and she was out and the screaming ceased. It felt like it took ten minutes to get her out, but Non Birding Bill assured me that it was barely a minute and was surprised at how fast I moved and got her out of the leash.

I sat with her for several minutes snuggled in close next to my chest--her breathing was raspy from all the screaming. NBB forced me into the house so we could look her over and see where she was hurt--I kind of didn't want to, imagining the worst possible damage. We set her on some carpet and she hopped normally, no limping, no favoring of any paws. She flopped onto the floor and I laid down next to her to pet and stroke her ears and apologize for not getting her out of the leash sooner. After a few minutes, she got up, shook her ears and nudged me hard as if to say, "Hey, I'm over it, now you get over it. It was far more embarrassing for me."

That night when I finally went to bed in the guest room, Cinnamon was sleeping on my side of the bed with NBB (that big pile of sheet behind Cinnamon is NBB). She seems to be saying in this photo, "Want to make it up to me? Then YOU sleep on the towel on the floor."

I don't think she hurt herself too badly. I think she just got bound up and couldn't get free and that freaked her out, causing her to panic and scream. It's so strange, I've heard the rabbit scream many times before in the wild--I've even mimicked it to call in hawks, owls, coyotes, and foxes. But, man o man, is it different when it's your very own disapproving rabbit.

But all is well and she's snoozing in her little Fortress of Solitude at home.