Planting, Birds and a Bunny

This spring so far has been a cool one. There have been a few mid 70 and 80 degree days, but not many. We finally finished picking up the sticks and branches blown down over the winter so we could mow the acreage for the first time this year. We have been having fires in our outdoor hearth and in our fire ring as much as possible when the wind is calm. There is so much kindling it will probably take all summer and fall to burn what we have accumulated. Shelly has purchased all of the plants and seeds for the freshly tilled garden but we are going to wait for the current cold spell to pass before we plant. We recently planted bulbs and sweet pea seeds along the southern end of the house and some bulbs along the side of the ditch. The farmers around us are done planting and the crops are just beginning to come up. The birds we have in most abundance around the acreage are robins, followed by finches, swallows, sparrows, grackles and starlings. There are pheasants living all around us, and at dusk we can hear them calling out, joining the chorus of robins we hear every sundown. A few days ago we had a fire in the outdoor hearth and I walked over to where the dogs had been rolling around to pick up a few sticks. Right where I was about to step was a tiny bunny, sitting so still I thought it was dead. I called Shelly over and she picked it up and it blinked and moved a bit in the palm of her hands. She took it to another part of the yard and it hopped away. The dogs walked the area where the rabbit had been sitting, sniffing, wondering how they could have missed it.