Wishing for a visit by Easter Bluebird

All through the winter, I received readers’ emails and letters, many of them with photos, telling me of the wonderful things they saw in their yards.

One woman sent pictures of bluebirds, a skunk and a squirrel that had an all-white tail. And one man shared with me a cute picture of a flying squirrel peeking out of a tree cavity.

I am particularly envious of people who have bluebirds in their yards. Sure, I have a long list of species that stop by my yard, but bluebirds are not on it.

Last winter, I kept looking for something unusual in the yard, but nothing showed up.

The one thing I saw about every day was a large, tame rabbit that kept eating bird seed that had spilled from my feeder. The rabbit joins right in with the squirrels and birds eating the seeds.

I know rabbits are not a big deal, but this one comes to my feeder in broad daylight and doesn’t care if I’m nearby. It is so tame that I can get within 10 feet to take a picture.

This creature has almost no fear of humans, which is unusual for wild cottontails.

Most of the rabbits that come into my yard in the winter are nocturnal. I knew they had been out there only because I would see their footprints the next morning in the snow.

I asked my neighbor the other day if she had seen this big, tame rabbit.

“Yes,” she said. “It ate all my crocuses.”

My neighbor, a teacher, told me the rabbit usually greets her when she leaves her house in the morning to go to school.

Right now, the rabbit has slowed down on bird feed and has moved on to my wife’s bluebells.

I have never seen a wild rabbit behave like this one.

Since Easter is coming soon, it did briefly cross my mind that perhaps I have been hosting the Easter Bunny all this time. If it is the Easter Bunny, I hope it knows that I want a big chocolate egg filled with peanut butter.

My wife thinks I am foolish for thinking something so preposterous as the Easter Bunny eating her bluebells. He would never do that.

She’s probably right. The more I think about it, I would rather have a bluebird hopping around in my backyard because people would believe that.

If I said I had a close, personal relationship with the Easter Bunny, readers probably would think that I was a crackpot.

On the other hand, if I said I had a bluebird out there, perhaps I could get away with saying the Easter Bluebird is visiting me for the holiday.

[FRED SQUILLANTE/DISPATCH] A “pinwheel garden” has sprung up in the plaza at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in honor of organ donors and recipients. Each pinwheel represents one of the 8,500 transplants performed at Ohio State since 1967. The eight spokes...

[JOHN SWITZER/DISPATCH] A rabbit makes itself at home among the cardinals and other birds in John Switzer’s yard, eating their feed.