Made a friend in my garden

I noticed this little friend hanging out nearby while I was gardening a couple weeks ago. I’d seen him in the yard from the window but he started coming out of our hydrangea bushes and under our deck while I was outside turning the compost or gardening a few feet away. He’d scavenge around the bird feeders for dropped pumpkin seeds or other things and he made good company since he just kinda sat there and watched me plant stuff while eating grass. I could talk in his direction and he didn’t seem to mind. I liked watching his behavior regarding other animals, seeing how he reacted to things like the nearby chickadee alarm calls, squirrel chirps, and predatory bird screeches, super interesting. I’ve seen him resting in our garden beds and nibbling my newly planted milkweed up as high as he could reach (which I don’t mind).

I noticed he seemed to like the maple leaves that would blow over towards the bushes, specifically scavenging for those over the grass, and started leaving him a leaf or two when I found nice ones in the yard while looking for feathers (we’ve got tons of wild turkeys in the area). Nothing crazy, just a leaf here or there if I noticed he was nearby. He’d hop out of the bushes while I was bird watching outside and just come eat by my feet. A couple days ago I decided to see if he’d accept a leaf from my hand and here’s a video of that. I call him Lil’ Bun. I now have a 6+ minute video of bunny ASMR that I recorded last night when I handed this little guy a leaf. I went outside to check that he was ok after a random cat wandered into our yard (we never get cats, it was super weird and I ran it off after it went after this little guy, plus I’ve got a few bird feeders up and would hate for the birds to get hurt).

We’ve always had a huge cottontail rabbit population in the area so it’s super common to see these guys around here, but I’ve never had one live under the deck before, or it’s possible I just never noticed since I only started gardening and spending time outside this year. I passed him a fresh maple leaf this morning when he popped out while I was refreshing the bird baths. Sweet little guy. 🐰

Made a friend in my garden
byu/Mouthydraws inBunnies

by Mouthydraws