Photogenic Chipmunk

When I was growing up, I knew about chipmunks first from books. Then I saw them when I went on vacations in Colorado - away from Texas where it was probably to dry and treeless for them to survive.

When I moved to the east coast, we saw them more frequently and I went to a lecture at the Smithsonian by Lawrence Wishner just after he’d published his book about Eastern Chipmunks. He’s the one that point out that the animals have Oreo markings on both sides.

In our current house, we have chipmunks that appear on the front porch - enjoying acorns from the oak further out in the yard. The cats are entertained by the view; they are hyper alert behind the glass of the narrow windows on either side of the front door. In the back of the house, the chipmunks come up onto the deck to clean up the seeds the birds spill from the feeder overhead. They also nibble on seeds from some of the flowers. The cats watch them from the screened part of the deck.

The photographs I’ve included in this post are of a very photogenic chipmunk at Stony Brook State Park in New York (taken on our recent road trip). The little rodent must have been used to people being around because it was near the playground area enjoying its meal…surveying the scene. It was early enough in the morning that nobody else was around except for me and my camera.