Jill munching

I know this looks a bit staged but it wasn't. Really! I've been feeding Jill from this pet bowl for about a year and used it to get her comfortable with being close to me. It was a great experience and worked so well that Jill started moving the bowl to wherever she wanted it: a few inches here, a foot or more there. No clue why she does it but the bowl is never where it was the last time I left it. This time, the bowl was about a foot (no kidding) away and she brought it right up to my foot. She's not afraid and you can see that in her eyes but the bowl had to hit my foot for her to stop moving it while eating. I dearly wish I had the clip of her picking it up and moving it inch by inch but I lost it somewhere in GIGABYTES of videos. If you look carefully you can see the deep teeth marks she has left on the hard plastic bowl.

Jill the Jackrabbit lives in "Weedy Field", an undeveloped spit of land locked between two parking lots in a business district. I work in a building that uses one of the lots and come to visit the creatures in the field with a Nikon D80 or D90. Jill is facing Northwest and my back is to the East and against a pine tree in the part of Weedy Field (my name for the place, obviously) I call Cone Grove. It's perpetually shady there but far from dark, as you can tell from the horrific lighting.

The video is from the Nikon D90 with the kit 18-105MM lens but I seriously doubt Nikon would appreciate me saying that. They'd probably HATE this: the video feature of this camera is one step above terrible. That 'one step' is the 12 megapixel resolution - a mighty small step. The damn thing doesn't focus except the one time you start shooting, it won't refocus when you zoom in or out, it won't focus if you pan or either you or the subject moves, and its start and stop button are on the back of the camera body, not the shutter release. For anyone without serious manual focusing experience AND perfect eyesight it is all but impossible. Top that off with the fact that you can't use the viewfinder since this is a standard SLR camera, meaning the view of the image is blocked by the exposure mechanism while it's open. That no biggie when you're shooting stills at 4 images per second. It's a living hell when you're trying to aim and focus a dynamic image by using the screen on the back of the camera! Half the time I'm trying to focus and keep the subject in view. The other half of the time I'm trying to FIND the subject in a 3-inch square that's either too close or too far from my face.

That said, there's nothing that can improve my video capabilities other than giving up entirely: they suck. I'm not getting paid for this. I'm not getting credits for a college course. I'm getting no endorsement fees or product discounts. I'm not getting girls, fame or fortune. I'm also not getting too embarrassed to keep from embarrassing myself further. What I CAN say is that I pulled the audio from this clip; the D90 captures very nice sound with video. But I was not amused during the video capture of my friend Jill. SHE didn't seem offended by my language but there are probably a few million people who would rather not hear the nasty/vile/evil/honest things I said quietly while Jill munched her gourmet rabbit food (at $10 a bag! You'll also notice she didn't like some parts of it and literally pulled them out of the bowl to drop them on the ground. Worst part was that the squirrels wouldn't eat them either so I had to pick them up or feel like I was littering with rabbit food.)

Alrighty then, reading this took longer than watching the video so please watch it again as you'll probably never see a wild jackrabbit eating gourmet rabbit food from a dog bowl under pine trees next to some guy's foot again. Ya know, I'm pretty sure I can pull out that "probably" disclaimer text.

PS This is a GONZO VIDEO so if you're into great cinematography and hate this, bite me rather than reply or post smack. LOL! It's for fun and its unusual content.

PS The Nikon D90 is one incredible camera and I dearly love mine despite the cruel things I said above.

PPS If someone from Nikon is reading this, "I LOVE THE VIDEO FEATURE TOO!"

PPPS Weedy Field is a location where a GeoCache (http://www.geocaching.com/) box is also hidden and people from all over the world come there without a clue a hare lair's there. (Ergo the logistical clues I sneaked into the text without actually saying where Weedy Field is but offering hints if you know what you're looking for. ;-)

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• California
• Weedy Field
• jackrabbit
• rabbit
• hare
• wild
• feeding
• friend
• odd
• unusual
• animals
• Nikon
• D90
• audio-less

[jannievc]

LMAO, too, I'm only brat sized, most definitely not brat aged!!! Compared to my feet, yours ARE clod-hoppers! I'm just a wee thing!

Lol, what do they say about men with big feet? I haven't previously had any problem with them!

[BigCatLenny]

It's NOT that you have a PROBLEM with men who have big feet, you wally! I can easily compare your physical height to the average size of an acoustic guitar: slightly more than twice the length. In other words, you're either the smallest human in Oz or have the biggest guitar. LOL!

[jannievc]

This is gorgeous, lenny, but how on earth did you meanage to keep your foot/feet still for so long - lol, with the clod-hoppers you have, I would imagine they'd tend to slide sideways rather easily!

[BigCatLenny]

LMAO! Brat!!!! My foot was just hanging out, like it always does. I wasn't making it STAY there or anything. :-D The my shoe size is a man's 11 - not even close to "clod-hopper" class! It's all just the digital distortion from shooting downward at an angle towards a big rabbit next to a...well, relatively big foot.

Anyway, what they say about guys with big feet is true. Be afraid Be VERY afraid

[TheBraniac79]

Awesome video Lenny...followed you here from RB (stalker much...lol) Anywho....can't believe she was so close to you. My wild friends got to about 50 feet from me before fleeing. So sorry for her passing and I hope Jack will warm up to you as Jill did. We all make friends but, to make one or more in the untamed and unwilling is something special my friend. Thanks for posting.

[Colleenieful]

She is so cute and peaceful. By the way so are you. Ha Ha

[jannievc]

Lmao, you cheeky, b*gger, , I'm by no means the smallest Aussie around but, if you stood two accousitics, one on top of the other, they would be taller than me!

So, tell me, what do they say about men with big feet? Hmmmmmm? I'm very curious.