Cinnamon came with me today to the Minnesota River Birding Day. She wasn't too thrilled to be on the leash but had a fun time. The leash is more for her protection, for some odd reason some people with dogs think it's funny to have their dog lunge longingly and growl at my rabbit and say "Isn't that cute he wants the bunny!" Once I was asked by someone if I could hold Cinnamon up to their dog so the dog could sniff her and we "could see what happens". Meanwhile the dog in question was shaking and yapping excitedly.

This leads me to another curiosity, for those of us with odd and or unusual pets. Have you ever noticed that when you have an unusual pet and people find out, they seem to take that as a cue to tell you their worst horror story about the time they or a friend had the exact same kind of pet and some grotesque, torturous death befell that pet? What is up with that? Just because I have a rabbit doesn't mean that I want to hear about the time you had a rabbit that had only three legs after it was run over by an uncle's tractor but died three months later because of a record breaking bot fly infestation. Really, honestly, I don't want to know.

Another reason to keep Cinnamon on leash when she is outside is because of hawks. The likelihood of a hawk coming out of the sky and nailing a rabbit surrounded by people is pretty darn slim, but why chance it?

The birding today was slim, most of the people who participated had lists of between 30 - 40 birds but their were some fun ones seen including blackpoll warbler, eastern bluebirds, American white pelicans, sharp-shinned hawks and a winter wren.

In other news the Birdchick Blog is now syndicated on Live Journal courtesy of fellow Hoosier Stardust Girl. You can subscribe to it here. Thanks Stardust Girl!