Because of the extreme heat and drought this summer, nature seems out of kilter. Flowers bloomed and wilted early. Mushrooms that usually produce bountiful crops in August are likely to be scarce. Wild berries and other fruits are also scarce, leaving scant food for bears and other wildlife.
Russet mountain avens give an autumnal hue to the tundra by mid-month. Big-rooted spring beauties, king's crown and queen's crown turn translucent red even as they continue to bloom.
Mountain chickadees, pine siskins and nuthatches begin a vertical migration to lower elevations. Rufous, broad-tailed and calliope hummingbirds engage in fierce battles for nectaring rights at sugar-water feeders. Migrating shorebirds continue to arrive at lakes and ponds on the plains.
The moon was full, and there must have been magic in the air. Two cottontail rabbits sat very still, gazing at each other.
Suddenly, one of them jumped straight up into the air. For several minutes, the pair frolicked, hop-scotching over each other and zig-zagging madly about, oblivious of onlookers.
It seems too hot to do the bunny hop, but cottontails are busy reproducing like, well, like rabbits. These lagomorphs (members of the Leporide family that also includes the larger jack rabbits and snowshoe hares) breed throughout the summer, producing two to six litters with four to seven babies per litter.
The phrase "attack rabbit" seems like an oxymoron, but we once watched a mother cottontail chase a fox squirrel repeatedly until the squirrel finally escaped up a tree. Presumably, the squirrel had been after the young.
Cottontails often den in prairie dog burrows and spend a large part of the day simply resting in shallow depressions called "forms," usually located in thickets or brushy areas.
We'd be over-run with rabbits were it not for predators, parasites and diseases. Few cottontails live longer than a year. Weasels and snakes crawl into the burrows for the babies, and coyotes, foxes, hawks, owls and eagles snatch adults. Human hunters kill 50,000 or more rabbits in some years, according to mammologist David Armstrong.
Nevertheless, this summer people are reporting a surge in rabbit numbers, possibly due to dry, warm weather.
Cottontails are most active in early morning and late afternoon, when you may see them munching on various kinds of vegetation, including your garden and landscaping plants. We have, however, observed a very obliging bunny devouring dandelions and weeds. If only they would learn to relish bindweed! In winter, the rabbits consume woody plants and sometimes gnaw through irrigation hoses to get water.
Because plants are hard to digest, cottontails excrete two types of feces: hard, dark pellets and a soft greenish waste that the rabbit re-eats. This practice, called coprophagy, enables the animal to extract all possible nutrition from their food.
Three different species inhabit Colorado. Mountain cottontails live mainly in the northwest and in the mountains; eastern cottontails, in woodlands in the eastern part of the state; and the desert cottontail (the one we are most likely to see in Boulder County) in the southwest and eastern plains. The species differ mainly in color, and Armstrong says they are almost impossible to distinguish in the field, except by habitat and location.
All three species have grayish brown fur accented by an orangey patch on the shoulders and a white powder puff tail that inspired their name. It's that conspicuous tail that often gives away the location of an inconspicuous animal. If the tweedy-coated rabbit remains crouched in the underbrush, it often escapes notice.
Several American Indian tribes regard the rabbit as a trickster who performs both good deeds and mischievous pranks. In a Passamaquoddy story, Rabbit tries to pull his friend Fisher out of a deep pit by dropping down his long, bushy tail. However, Fisher's weight breaks off Rabbit's beautiful tail, leaving Rabbit with just a short scut. In the course of helping his animal friends, Rabbit also acquires a cleft lip and elongated hind legs, forcing him to hop rather than run.
Ruth Carol Cushman and Stephen Jones are authors of "Wild Boulder County" and "The North American Prairie."