Bunnies Bouncing!

We have been spending a lot of time down by the lake – we live less than a mile from Lake Erie- and we usually sit there for at least a couple of hours, every few days or so.  Picnicking, watching the boaters, the birds and just people watching in general, but what has really been fun is watching the bunnies!

They just run around like crazy – jumping and springing everywhere.  I was so fascinated by this lively behavior, that after doing a little research, I discovered it was called Rabbit Binking.  Did you know that?  I certainly did not.

Rabbits binkying…

Look a little bit like a person gleefully jumping into the air and clicking their heels together. While rabbits don’t do that Fred Astaire heel click, they do leap into the air and twist their bodies to show that they are happy or excited. It seems if we don’t know about this behavior and what binking looks like, we may think that the rabbit is scared and running away or that something else is wrong with them, but a binky is a very normal, natural thing for a happy rabbit to do.

Another behavior that we noticed, was sometimes they just seemed to run around as fast as they could, just helter skleter. And that actual behavior is called The Bunny 500.

So, the rabbits we saw running run around as fast as they could as though something was chasing them, is called The Bunny 500. This behavior is also a happy one and the bunnies are merely zooming around just out of pure excitement. Whatever the reason for this wild racing and zipping around is, what we found was, not only was it entertaining to watch, but we also learned that these were happy bunnies!

NOW, you’re wondering… okay this blog is about tea, so why is she writing about bunnies? Well, it’s funny how one’s mind works, for the first thing, that came to mind, was Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor – was Peter doing the Bunny 500, to get away from him, in his garden patch?  And then my brain warped to the time his mom gave him some tea.

” I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter! One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime.  But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton -tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.” 

So, perhaps just maybe, after all this zipping and zooming around, these bunnies are going home to their burrow and are enjoying a nice cup of chamomile tea, served with warm carrots scones, and honey butter.  Now wouldn’t that be lovely?