An Eastern cottontail rabbit

WAY down the slope, almost to the bottom of the ravine (below our small house in the mountains), we spotted a grazing rabbit early this evening. The long camera lens gave me a better shot... In perfect rabbit fashion, it proceeded to eat entire stalks of grasses (probably from the winter-strewn hay that my gardening companion had put down for mulch).

As wildlife gardeners, we're happy to see such a large and robust rabbit, obviously a survivor over years; as vegetable gardeners, we hope s/he will stay down on the slope eating grasses!

But it would take a bold rabbit to make it up to the raised beds above the house, the ones full of lettuces.

We'll see! But we had fun watching him/her consume the grasses (through binoculars) this afternoon.