This Wildlife Wednesday is brought to you courtesy of my mom, our backyard, and a silly (though slightly deranged) chipmunk. Here’s the story, in my mom’s (funny!) words:
The chipmunk that lives in our yard has been crazily tunneling near the retaining wall, and has excavated an impressive amount of dirt and stones. Either s/he has a large store of seeds and nuts for the winter, or has a large extended family to house (perhaps their tunnels have been foreclosed?) or s/he is simply NUTS (pun intended). This little critter is a poster chipmunk for persistence and industriousness. The first photo was taken just before Dad was going to mow the lawn.
I then cleared away the stones by shoveling them into the garden, so the mower didn’t go over them and cause damage or injury. LESS than 24 hours later, Chippy had again removed nearly the same quantity, as seen in photo 2!
On second thought, perhaps there is a chipmunk jail, and a group of them have been plotting to escape? It seems that one tiny rodent could not possibly carry out that much!
Thanks Mom!
