Cottontail

My dad tells of a boyhood time when his Oklahoma family went to the creek and shot 103 cottontails on one hunting trip. That’s unthinkable in most places now. I’m outdoors all over Kansas, and I’ve never seen that kind of rabbit population in modern times. Of course, legal bag limits would forbid it anyway, unless you had 11 family members. Come to think of it, his family had 10.

But anyway, today I saw a cottontail in a place where I’d not seen one for three years. It was out in the open in coyote country. It flattened into the snow, trying for invisibility. But the white stuff made it easy to see.

Snow helped me spot a covey of quail, too, and told me where the deer were trailing. And out there among them all, a roadrunner sat idly on a post, watching the white world.

At least it was fairly warm, making it easy on all the wildlife. One year ago tonight, much of Kansas was colder than 10 below zero.