THE deluge of rain we had in April has proved to be a bounty for many of our district's wild plants and animals, with mild and damp conditions being just what many of our springtime plants needed to put on a real spurt of growth.

This abundance of plant life has also been a real boom for the district's wild grazing animals and this can be seen no more clearly than in the sudden increase we have had in the rabbit population.

Rabbits are notorious for having a prolific breeding rate. A single female can easily produce 12 offspring, confusingly called kittens just 30 days after becoming pregnant. The young rabbits usually suckle from the doe for just over three weeks before becoming mostly independent and grazing for themselves. This is probably just as well, as the doe will commonly be pregnant again within two days of giving birth to a litter.

It is this prolific breeding rate that probably led the Normans to introduce rabbits to our country around 1,000 years ago as a readily available human food source. These days, rabbit is much less popular and in many places it has also become a menace, damaging crops and plantations. This led, rightly or wrongly to the introduction of the viral disease myxommatosis in the 1950's, which still devastates rabbit populations wherever there is an outbreak.

It is not all bad news however, as rabbits are helping with conservation in some areas. On many of the lowland heaths of the district where more formal grazing is impractical due to social issues, the rabbits step in to help, often very effectively by supplementing more mechanical management methods and creating areas of 'Rabbit Lawn', which adds to the diversity and value of the heath. Rabbits have not fallen out of popularity as food for birds of prey either.

Buzzards, of which just a few years ago would have been newsworthy, are now common place. On nearly every nature reserve you cannot help but hear the shrill call of the buzzards and upon looking up, usually you can readily see a pair if not more, soaring high above on a rising thermal. With such a boom in the rabbit population these magnificent birds may do even better.

However, it would seem that modern rabbits are finding new means to elude predators. Rabbits are usually nocturnal, but when they feel unthreatened they shift their behaviour and become active throughout the day. This seems to be the case with many rabbits that live near the road verges. It would appear that young rabbits have learned the basics of road safety as the daytime traffic is protecting these warrens from would-be predators.