Here is Cinnamon atop her new Cottontail Cottage. At first she disapproved, but now I think she understands that with this new bunny hideout she can bring her disapproval to a whole new level.

Meanwhile, she has other problems on her plate. Mike Hendrickson sent a link warning us that we are not the only female birder and bunny act in the blogosphere. Somewhere In NJ Blog has started up and she's letting her bunny photos loose with a vengeance. You can already see in this link the bunnies are going for broke with hiney photos. I asked Cinnamon if she would like me to do the same for her, but she gave me here usual disapproving look and apparently butt shots are a little too exploitive for her taste--hopefully she hasn't noticed the photo in the previous post. I'm sure she would disapprove and accuse me of making her butt look big.

Something interesting, I've started to explore the world of bunny related blogs and I am surprised and a bit taken aback by the number of rabbit run blogs (here is an example) where the bunnies type in a sort of baby talk that almost resembles Buckwheat talk similar to the Eddie Murphy- Saturday Night Live routine. Cinnamon is not happy with this and would like everyone to know that rabbits are capable of proper grammar and speech and this move of rabbits blogging in baby talk must be a predator run conspiracy. Personally, I find this disturbing, and yet, I can't stop reading it.

Today I stopped into a bird store I don't typically patronize for some article research. I found a pet odor elimination product and as I was waiting in line to purchase it, a customer in front of me enquired on how to get rid of crows. I waited for the store employees to answer and they hesitated so I volunteered some information. Usually, I try to stay quiet in bird stores because I don't want to upstage the employees, but they weren't quick to answer and I've had lots of experience with crows and bird feeders. I started to point to some weight sensitive feeders and mentioned my luck in using those to keep crows out. However, this woman didn't want to just keep crows out of her feeder, she wanted to keep them out of her yard. For the record, there is no humanly way to keep crows out of her yard. She mentioned that she had a neighbor who throws bread out specifically for squirrels and all involved were upset the crows were coming for the bread and scaring the squirrels. Before I could stop myself I started chuckling, and noticed one of the guys behind the counter did too. It's not every day you hear someone upset about a bird taking food from squirrels!

The customer said that she wouldn't mind ten or twelve crows but she had over three hundred in her woods and she needed expert advice on what to do with them. I suggested that she learn to love crows, but that wasn't what she wanted to hear. Here were her other suggestions (in bold) and the answers to those suggestions (in regular type):

Fake owl or hawk: Those never work, first they just bring in crows who want to mob them and second, any self respecting bird figures out they are fake in about five hours or less. Fake owls and hawks are a waste of money as far as repellents go.

Feral cats running through the woods: I told her those are way more likely to keep the songbirds away than crows. This was unacceptable because she wanted to keep the other birds around and anyway, the neighbor that feeds the squirrels was working on taming the cats so they won't chase the birds.

Noise Makers: They might keep all the birds away for a little while, but eventually birds can get used to the sound.

Her Neighbor Chasing Them With A Broom: Will work at the time, but unless the neighbor will be out there all day long, is a temporary solution at best. However, this might provide endless amusement for others who live on the block.

Her Dog Out In The Woods: See Neighbor With Broom answer.

The Raptor Center Coming Over With Birds Of Prey To Chase The Crows Away: The Raptor Center will not come out for a crow problem. Although, you might find someone from the Minnesota Falconry Association to help with that, but alas they do not have a website or phone number and cannot be contacted easily.

A Non-lethal Gun: This was Non Birding Bill's favorite suggestion. What was she talking about, a nerf gun or super soaker? I'm not sure what this non-lethal gun is that she was speaking of.

At this point the conversation started going weird and in circles. The customer mentioned that something needed to be done about the crows scaring the cats and squirrels (that perplexed me and clued me in to "let her go" because earlier she had asked if cats would keep crows away). After the non-lethal gun suggestion I figured it best to wish her "good luck" and move along with my own purchase.