Got up way before dawn this morning and was sitting in the woods scanning the tree tops and listening for squirrels feeding on the ground when the sun came up. After sitting for awhile and not seeing anything I decided to still hunt the trails that meander the woods. This is the same 200 acre state owned parcel of land I was hunting yesterday.
As I slowly made my way down a trail I looked up ahead and about 30 yards in front of me, sitting just inside the bushes on the side of the path, was a large white object. I stopped and stared at the object then said to myself "oh great, I'm trying to sneak up on squirrels and I've got this huge white feral cat doing the same thing". There is quite a healthy population of feral cats in most of the woods around here, some of em pretty big and mean.
All of sudden the "cat" moved and I got a better angle of view on it,,,,, it wasn't a cat it was a rabbit,,, a pure white rabbit,,, and a huge one at that !! I already had a predator loaded in the Goldfinger .22 so I put the scope on target and pulled the trigger. The instant the pellet struck home the rabbit just fell over on it's side, twitched 2 or 3 times, then it was all over.
I went over to retrieve my trophy and was amazed. It wasn't a true albino, as it didn't have pink eyes and it had normal brown fir on the pads of the feet and also a small streak of brown fir running down the back, but the rest of him was pure white. It was also the largest cottontail I've seen in a long time. I have seen a few of em this big around here over the years , but not white. I've seen snowshoe hares in upstate NY like this, but we don't have snowshoes on Long Island according to the wildlife experts. Anyway, I finished out the morning still hunting the trails, and I did see several squirrels, including a pure black squirrel which I cleanly missed :( but the white rabbit was the only game I brought home. I would've like to have nailed that black squirrel. We have a small population of them here but this is the first one I've gotten a shot at. I would've liked to have gotten that nutter stuffed and mounted for my fireplace mantel. Well, at least I know where his nest is so I've got the rest of the season to hunt him down :)
I took some pics of the rabbit and also had my daughter take a couple of me holding my prize. I just got finished placing him in the freezer. Gonna make a good dinner later this week :)
Jeff
