Rabbitwatching

Our apartment complex sort of wraps around a piece of privately owned land such that the view from the east end of our balcony overlooks a grassy area with trees that supports a fair amount of wildlife. We've seen birds (including hawks), deer, mice, and other little critters there quite a bit.

Next to the fence just below our apartment building, there is a narrow paved track. I just took this photo so you can see the layout:

At about 7:30 this evening, I went out to water my herbs on the balcony and was daudling over it because the weather was so (comparatively) nice today. I was enjoying looking at the Mexican hat (coneflower) blooming and the many birds flying around when a cottontail rabbit came running down the paved track from right to left. Robert and I have seen rabbits after nightfall on the apartment complex property, but I have not seen one in daylight from a distance where I could actually watch, so I was pretty excited to see this bunny.

Very soon, another cottontail came down the path. They veered into the grass and stopped, standing still about 10 feet away from each other. It was hard to see them in the grass (the camouflage is remarkably good), so I got some binoculars and settled into to watch them.

After about 5 to 10 minutes of watching them standing utterly still (an act of patience I am not typically able to manage), I was hugely rewarded.

The rabbits moved toward each other and stopped with less than a foot separating them. One rabbit started making this kind of sproingy up-and-down movement with its body while the other started making a pre-lunging front-to-back movement and appeared to almost box at the first one with its front paws a few times. Sproingy jumped directly up and down in the air a couple of times (with an impressive lift, in my opinion), and then Lungy ran toward Sproingy, who jumped up so that Lungy ran directly under where Sproingy had been standing. They regrouped and did this again several more times. I cannot be sure whether the two rabbits consistently performed one role in this interaction or if they switched, since they looked identical to me. I couldn't figure out if they were fighting or playing or what.

Next, one rabbit chased the other for short-ish distance, then they both stopped, again with some distance between them. They stayed like this for several more minutes, and then one rabbit moved very close to the other one again. I basically ruled out the idea that they had been fighting at this point. I wondered if they would lunge and sproing again, but a car drove into the parking lot with loud rap music and both rabbits hightailed it deeper into the neighbor's property.

With a bit of thought, it finally occurred to me that I might have been observing mating behavior. Google served me up this information on cottontail rabbits:

"A mating pair performs an interesting ritual before copulation. This usually occurs after dark. The buck chases the doe until she eventually turns and faces him. She then spars at him with her forepaws. They crouch, facing each other, until one of the pair leaps about 2 feet in the air. This behavior is repeated by both animals before mating."

The "nice" weather I was experiencing earlier has now changed to hard, sideways rain. I had been half-expecting rain all day due to the double indicators of cloudiness and headache, but I am glad it held off long enough for me to see these rabbits in action.