Chipmunks are very near and dear to my heart. I've loved them since I was a child and have made many friends through my life. These last ten plus years on Blip, I've watched them even closer with my camera by my side. When I was teaching I discovered a book, Chipmunks On The Doorstep in my elementary school library. A delightful, little book, filled with personal observations by the author, Edwin Tunis accompanied by his charming illustrations. I checked it out every spring to reread. When I retired I sadly left it behind. A close friend, an elementary school librarian in a neighboring town knew how much I loved the little volume and saved it for me from the discard pile at her school. That copy was well loved and tattered, and I was thrilled. Two years ago we purged a lot of books here and donated them. When spring arrived, I went to read the book again and could not find it. I couldn't imagine that I would have donated it, but it was nowhere to be found. I went to Amazon and luckily found a used copy in excellent condition. Last month we watched a movie about the Bloomsbury Group and I knew I had a book about the group and went to refer to it. I knew it was with some books under the small table next to my favorite chair.I AND to my surprise, my old chipmunk book was there too. It had been beside me all along, so now I have two.
Winter is coming and I thought it would be fun to show some illustrations from the book depicting a typical chipmunk burrow. We have so many chippies that our garden land must be riddled with tunnels as each lives a solitary life.
My ancestor, John Josselyn, writing in 1675 of the animals of New England, called the Chipmunk, "Mouse Squirril" , and said of it: The Mouse squirril is hardly so big as a Rat, streak'd on both sides with black and red streaks, they are mischievous vermine destroying abundance of corn both in field and house, where they will gnaw holes in chests and tear clothes both linnen and wollen,a and are notable nut-gatherers in August; when hasel and filbert nuts are ripe and you maty see see upon every Nut- as many mouse squirrils as leaves; so the nuts are gone in a thrice, which they convey to their nests." from Transactions of the Linnaean Society of New York, 1882
So as you can see my fascination comes from a long line of chipmunk lovers. The little one in my photo looks like she might be worrying that her storehouse is not fully stocked. I know we can help ease her worries.
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
