Resident Chipmunk

We have several chipmunks in the garden. I love watching their antics. Some of them aren't afraid to crawl up things, jump and basically do what needs to be done to be able to get their food. The chipmunk who seems to rule the garden is getting very particular. It watches from up high to keep an eye out for any intruding chipmunks. It's been chirping incessantly for ages at a time. Last night it was warm enough to have the windows open and the sound was driving us absolutely crazy! I decided I had to look it up to see why s/he was doing this. Apparently - as we thought - it is warning others to stay out of its territory. We had been calling this chipmunk a he, but from what I read it is probably a female as they are more territorial and it is definitely that!

For some reason Chirpy's favourite place seems to be on this make-shift window air conditioner thingy (I have no clue what it is actually called). S/he won't be happy soon when it is taken away so the air conditioner will be put in the window! I did tell you that the garden wasn't perfect.

Chirpy was up there chirping when I took this photo. I didn't see any other chipmunks around but there were lots of birds so maybe it doesn't like them being in the garden either!

Chirpy came down long enough today to have a look around. There were a couple of other chipmunks over by the fence at this point so maybe s/he was making sure they didn't come any closer.

I did end up leaving a couple of peanuts close to its hole when I put out some more bird seen. Chirpy enjoyed those!

Yes, that's another random piece of wood. I daren't move it at this point as it is right outside Chirpy's hole. I would hate to reveal it!

A couple of interesting chipmunk facts:-

* Chipmunks are diurnal - that means they only come out in the daytime.

* They live between 2-3 years

* They have pouches in their cheeks to store and carry food. These pouches can stretch to three times     larger than their heads!