Photo: Gilles Gonthier
They entertained us all summer long, chasing each other around the garden in dizzying circles. Their high-pitched chatter drove our cat mad, taunting him as they raced back and forth outside the screen porch before diving headfirst into one of their tunnels. They’ve built an extensive network of burrows near the house over the years, including one in the long stone wall along the driveway that in the summer months is as populated and bustling as a Manhattan co-op. They’re good neighbors, though, keeping their living quarters clean and storing their trash in designated refuse tunnels.
In the early fall, we watched them foraging for acorns under the oaks, stuffing their expandable cheek pouches with the nuts that they stockpile in their burrows and live off of all winter. This harvesting and hoarding apparently fosters seedling development, and their droppings enrich the soil around trees, endowing these playful little characters with an important role in the forest ecosystem. They’ve been such a lighthearted part of our lives for so many months now, it took us a while to realize that they’ve gone. They’ve disappeared into their underground hidey holes for the winter, their absence adding to the growing stillness and silence of the late fall landscape.
For the Chipmunk in My Yard
by Robert Gibb
I think he knows I’m alive, having come down
The three steps of the back porch
And given me a good once over. All afternoon
He’s been moving back and forth,
Gathering odd bits of walnut shells and twigs,
While all about him the great fields tumble
To the blades of the thresher. He’s lucky
To be where he is, wild with all that happens.
He’s lucky he’s not one of the shadows
Living in the blond heart of the wheat.
This autumn when trees bolt, dark with the fires
Of starlight, he’ll curl among their roots,
Wanting nothing but the slow burn of matter
On which he fastens like a small, brown flame.
I loved seeing so many at our lake place in New Hampshire growing up. I do not see many in this Maine city I now live in, but I do love watching all the squirrels.
I agree — squirrels are a delight to watch, especially their tree acrobatics!
I’ve been hearing about places where the number of chipmunks has inexplicably gone down. But everywhere we’ve been this year, they’ve been there to greet us. As you say, such good neighbors.
Our chipmunk population tends to wax and wane, but we, too, had a robust group this year.
BarryAWOTC
We have lots of chips. Very cute. I wish they ate mosquitoes.
I don’t think they’re very picky about what they eat, though they’d have to down a lot of mosquitoes to put a dent in their appetites.
we too have many little chipmunk neighbors here and they are adorable. Love this post Liza
Happy Fall.
Thanks, Gwen!
Thanks for the information on how they benefit the eco system. I read/heard that squirrels brains get larger in the Fall because they have to remember all the places they hid there nuts. Not sure if that’s true for chipmunks. I know both my dog and I prefer them to squirrels. They are SO cut.
That’s fascinating about squirrels’ brains. I know they remember without fail when my pears are ripe enough to pick every September; they can wipe out a tree overnight.