Fall

It was a quick trip to the Patch yesterday because we walked the trails and there was no garbage! The weather has turned to more typical Pacific Northwest autumn, meaning rain and wind.  Temperatures remain amazingly warm as the air and moisture zip from the tropics on the "Pineapple Express."

The deciduous trees are shedding and soon will all be bare. I should have picked a "fall tree" that was not right in front of a conifer!

The only incident of note is that we found a dead rabbit.  It was right next to the trail and looked like it had been there for only hours; no obvious signs of injury.  We have never seen a rabbit on the Patch before, so seeing a dead one was a bit of a surprise. We will have to be more alert for rabbit sign.

As I thought about it, the death and position of the little body seemed odd: if another animal killed it, why was there no sign of injury?  Not that we examined it closely, but we did roll it into the brush, so we could tell that there was no blood or bite marks on it.  And why did it die right next to the trail, out in the open?   Our rabbits "favor brushy habitats and rarely venture far from cover."¹ This guy (or gal, we didn't check) was a good ten feet from any brush or hiding place......

I also regret to say that we have never found any of the Neuroterus saltatorious galls.

Addendum: upon further study, it seems that our rabbit was likely a non-native eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus). "...the eastern cottontail is less persnickety about its habitat and more likely to be seen out in the open."²

---

1 Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest p 111, by David Moskowitz^↩

---

2 Passionate Slugs & Hollywood Frogs p 22, by Patricia K. Lichen^↩