Farmers Weekly Review

Spring brings many things — warmer temperatures (or not), greener grass, daffodils blooming, and wildlife getting in the “family way.”

Usually, my columns focus on what to do. Well today, it is all about what not to do when it comes to baby wildlife.

But first an important wildlife check is in order. Have you mowed your grass yet? If not, to avoid an incredibly traumatic experience, take a hard look at the picture in this article showing the lawn with yellow, brown dead-looking spots. You might also see what looks like a clump of old dead grass. But is it?

Spring is the time when rabbits (and all wildlife really) do what they strive to do more than anything else. No, I don’t mean eat your tulips and shrubs. I mean make more of themselves.

This is the goal of nature as a whole, create more of themselves to carry on their species. That is why plants produce seeds. That is why animals make more animals. And you can note here that plants don’t produce one or two seeds, and many wildlife don’t just produce one or two offspring, it is to multiply. And no one better at that than rabbits.

Well, let me correct myself there, insects are actually the most successful lifeform on earth because of their incredible ability to reproduce in incredible numbers and numerous times in a season. But today, it is about mammalian wildlife.

Rabbits often make their nests in your yard. And like all wildlife, they try to disguise their precious home where they will have and raise their young. They are great at camouflage so that discolored patch or lump of dead grass might be a bunny nursery.

The big thing is not to find that out with the blade of your lawnmower. Take a walkabout first and gently investigate, then you can avoid an unintentional massacre. I have had this happen, and it isn’t pretty.

The lawnmower isn’t our only issue. What about our dogs and cats? And our natural predators of small mammals, like our hawks and other birds of prey? What can you do if you want to protect the rabbits? You buy them a baby shower gift — a dollar store laundry basket with some modifications.

Your goal is to put a protective barrier around the nest until the babies are on their own and everyone moves out of mom’s house — usually only three to four weeks. You take the laundry basket and will be turning it upside down with two or three bricks or large rocks to keep it in place. But first …

You have to make two exit holes for the mom bunny to get in and out (see photo above). She needs to feed herself so she can feed her babies. Cut the basket holes on the opposite sides so she has more than one way to get in.

Not only will the basket create a big enough obstacle, so you won’t mow the nest, it also keeps Fluffy and Fido at bay, not to mention hawks and other birds. It is only a month-long situation; then you can remove the basket and mow on as usual.

Now on to the bigger what to do with wildlife babies in general. I know. I am a softie, too, when it comes to anything animal. I can watch the most graphic murder and mayhem show when it comes to people, but I literally have to change the channel every time one of those ASPCA commercials come on showing animals in dire straits.

It is in our nature. Humans want to help. But often, when it comes to the natural world, our helping can end up as hurting. It isn’t our fault, it is considered an innate tendency of human psychology called anthropomorphism, assigning human characteristics to animals or objects. You might not be familiar with this word, but I bet you have done it or at least someone who does.

I know you are out there — you might “feel sorry” for that sock or glove that lost its matcher and now it is lonely. Or you feel bad when you put a non-working appliance at the curb, feeling like it is sad being abandoned. But these are just objects. When it comes to animals, the tendency is even greater.

You find a bird that fell from its nest, and you immediately want to pick it up because it is lost without its mom, and you think the parents have abandoned it.

Truth is, the parents haven’t abandoned it and are staying away because, well, you are there. Just let it be. The parents are usually nearby getting food.

The worst thing to do is to scoop the baby up and try to “rescue” it and, worse, feed it or give it water. More often than not, the little bird doesn’t survive because you actually gave it aspiration pneumonia.

Feeding baby birds and animals is more tricky than you know. Just like our small baby selves, that trachea (breathing tube) and esophagus (food tube) are very small and close to each other. When water or food is put down the trachea, it can cause aspiration pneumonia.

Many wildlife experts stress, if you have to do something, (and usually you shouldn’t), put the animal in a dark space with no food or water and contact a wildlife rehabilitator.

But then there is the other situation: Is it true nests sometimes get blown out of a tree in a storm? Absolutely. Is it true if you try to pick up the nest or nestling babies, the parent birds will “smell human” and abandon the young and the nest? Absolutely not.

First, birds don’t have much of a sense of smell. And that is an urban legend that human smell will cause them to abandon their offspring. No.

So put the nest back up if it blew out of a tree, and put those babies back with it. You are not saving them by taking them into your home. Nature knows what to do.

But if you still aren’t sure? That is what I am here for, only an email or phone call away. [email protected] or 815 727 9296.