Red wrote:
....
Everyone on the eastern side of the US, including me, is seeing more
rabbits this year than in years past. Mother Nature has given them
something special in their lives - probably Al Gore & global warming.

I suspect "everyone" is perhaps an exaggeration, but...

My supposition would be the breaking of the worst of the moderate to
severe drought conditions across a great portion of the country east of
the Mississippi has had more to do with it than anything--they, like all
wild critters breed to the available conditions. We were across to
Raleigh a month or so ago and it's greenest from Arkansas all the way
east I've seen in many a year -- since a year or so after we moved, in
fact, I'd say...

While not such a major effect back there, out here the amount of
widespread hail during and shortly after nesting season has a major
impact on the yearly quail/pheasant populations and somewhat lesser
effect on rabbits, etc., but certainly not inconsequential.

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