Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Chasing my elusive chipmunk

There have been outdoor cats here since I moved in.
A neighborhood cat makes his way through on occasion,
but Purrl, our last outdoor cat, gave up the chase last year.

Our chipmunk population has boomed to three we know of.


They frequent the safflower seeds on the ground.
If two or more approach simultaneously,
they chest butt each other off in the field,
in their best Alvin and the Chipmunks routine.


They move faster than 1/60th of a second, that's for sure.
Left with a pair of house finches.


Stuffing, stuffing, stuffing its little cheeks.



Not its best angle; missing that wide-eyed innocence.


Sharing with a juvenile cardinal and a finch.


You can't see me.


You can't see me, I think.


You can't see me, can you?
Pfffttt...gone.

30 comments:

  1. I love chipmunks, cats will certainly keep the population down, unfortunately.

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  2. They are adorable. Really. However since we now no longer have our fearless hunter, they've overrun our yard and are eating the roots of many of our plants. When my neighbor across the street described how some got into her mother's house by tunneling under the clapboards, my love of them really evaporated.

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  3. what a sweet little guy with his fat cheeks, my Barney would surely eat him and my Betty in her day would catch him even quicker.

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  4. I am pretty certain that neither of our cats would know what to do with him. He is cute, but I suspect they can be completely pestiferous.

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  5. He is such a cutie my cat's might make friends with him, they are to lazy to chase him and to well fed to eat him Merle.............

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  6. Chappy,my cat, would have enjoyed him for breakfast and then one of his kin for lunch and supper. Cuts down on the need for cat food from the store. They are very damaging if left without natural enemies.

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  7. So cute and neat that he is willing to share the birds' food :)

    betty

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  8. They cram so much into their cheeks. Just when you thinnk they cannot get any more in there they cram more in. They are amazingly adorable.

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  9. Thank you so much! I have never before seen a real live chipmunk; he's so cute.

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  10. I can see that having just three chipmunks might be the ideal number and that for sure reading the comments on here would make one consider living in a stone built house ?

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  11. We don't have them here in the UK. I suppose that the nearest we get is the grey squirrel and that, although pretty, has driven out native red squirrel out of many areas. But I have to admit I rather like your chipmunk.

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  12. Cute little critters... but they can wreak havoc at bird feeders or eating the sunflower seeds right off the flowers... still... they're so much fun to watch.

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  13. Joanne, I saw chipmunks when we were in Colorado. Adorable! I don't think we have them here in Texas - at least I've never seen them here. Good thing too... I'm afraid that our feral cats would make short work of them.

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  14. Hari OM
    Great shots Joanne... every critter deserves it's day in the spotlight!!! YAM xx

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  15. I love chipmunks! It's the only thing the north has that I wish we had but I guess it gets too hot for them.

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  16. They are so cute and teeny. A squirrel bit my electric line yesterday and the power was out for some time. The repairman said"well, there's your dinner." Only in the country would someone say that. I'm not eating a squirrel. My cats brought in a teeny flying squirrel, which I thought a baby squirrel at first. They are very rare here. I took it to the taxidermist and am waiting for it.

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  17. What a beautiful little finch! We have quite a lot of types of colourful finch here but that really is handsome.

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  18. What a beautiful little finch! We have quite a lot of types of colourful finch here but that really is handsome.

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  19. Love your pictures. We don't have ground squirrels here in my part of the country. We have lots of brown squirrels though. I feed them corn and love to watch them try to get into the bird feeders!

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  20. We have squirrels and chipmunks that have tried to come in the house through the slider. I guess they just see themselves.

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  21. Gorgeous. When Jess worked at Camp America, the chipmunks stole chocolate from the bunk rooms ! I adore Finches.

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  22. What a cute little thing.

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  23. Good cat food. I few are ok but they multiple too fast. Their digging and morning chirping are annoying. But I'll admit they can be fun to watch.

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  24. The juvenile Cardinal is starting to show his colors. How beautiful it will be in winters.

    Are chipmunks and ground squirrels the same or related. The latter live in fields and wetlands here. Mountain lions and cats loooove them.

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    1. They're related. Our cats kept them "under control" all these years, but now we're out of outdoor cats, and timid as they still are, they have become quite brazen. Our friend had a cat who swore off chipmunks when the one he caught turned on him and sunk all it's claws in the cat's face--before he jumped off and scampered.

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  25. I'm thinking how much fun you had getting these photos. I would have enjoyed doing it with you.

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  26. They are very cute but they love bulbs, especially the expensive ones. Fortunately we have few of them (mostly I expect because we have a good population of snakes). So far I have not seen any this year. (But I have seen quite a few garter snakes)

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