under the bird feeder. date on picture is 11/15/18. please notice that hole near the critter.
Chipping brown-furred critters love to dig showy
Holes to dependent tunnels in angles and depths,
Intentional architecture branches to utilitarian
Pretty dirt condo: runway, pantries, drainage, and
Mondo leaf-cushioned sleep and nesting pod for
Underground parking of perennial singles
Not to mention sometimes parents. Mid food chain
Killers of seeds and frogs but fair game for hawks
Best at surviving through speed and plunge dives
Undisputed cutest Easter pink jellybean pups
Resistant to hibernation, they torpor in winter
Restroom break exceptions to exit and doo
Outstanding, sophisticated complex digs
Wonderful adaptation of their terrestrialism
Facts about chipmunks from The Treehugger website:
• They Need About 15 Hours of Sleep Per Day
• They Are a Type of Squirrel
• North America Hosts the Most
• They Prefer Subterranean Living
• Chipmunks Have a Lot of Predators
• They Have a Lot of Food Sources, Too
• Some Chipmunks Hibernate, but Not Continuously
• They Are Especially Adorable as Newborns
• They’re Natural Loners
• Solitary Doesn’t Mean Silent
acrostic form poem
Kim is today’s host of dVerse’ Prosery. Kim says:
I … thought it would be fun to write poems about other creatures that build homes, such as nests, dens and burrows.
Tao Talk 
We don’t have chipmunks over here and I’ve only ever seen them in cartoons or on nature programmes, so I was delighted to see the additional information as well as the photos. Their burrow system is a little bit like that of a badger although, as you say, they are squirrels. I only know of squirrels that live in trees. I was especially interested to see that they are natural. albeit noisy, loners. I enjoyed your informative acrostic, Lisa, and learned a lot of new things about chipmunks. My imagination ran wild at ‘Underground parking of perennial singles’!
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Love your comment, Kim. They are plentiful here. We also have something called ground squirrels that are a little bigger and speckled iirc but have never seen them around here. We do have at least 4 kinds of tree squirrels that are also plentiful here and love to raid the bird feeders when they get reach out or jump to get onto them.
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Squirrels love our bird feeders, but so do rats! We had a big fat rat out there for a while and then David found it dead by the shed. Not sure if it had eaten rat poison in someone else’s garden or if a neighbour’s cat got it.
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UGH! That’s one thing that just doesn’t live around here. I’ve seen them around restaurant dumpsters in the city though. I didn’t think cats would tangle with rats but nothing would surprise me.
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Luna is getting old and a bit arthritic, but she is still a great little hunter when she goes out, The rats around here come from the fields and rivers. They look very clean and healthy, but I still don’t want them in our garden!
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I love the way you tell a story of their life, this is just wonderful. I reckon that they will not be too popular among farmers and gardeners with all that digging.
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Thank you, Bjorn. They usually don’t go far from rocks, boulders, etc. so more of a woodland than farmland critter. I took some pics this afternoon that I will add to this post if you want to see them a little later.
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They used to drive my father crazy digging under the foundation of the house. But they are very cute. (K)
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Oh I love Chipmunks and your poem humanizes them. They are smart and funny and very entertaining. One of my cats used to drag them through the cat door (alive) when we lived in Virginia many years ago. He used to drop them and enjoy watching what they did. Usually darting beneath the fridge or some other narrow opening and I would spend half the night trying to encourage it out of there 😳
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Thanks, Christine!
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An interesting poem, Lisa. They are cute little boogers. They hog and hoard my birds seed from the feeder.
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Dwight you just reminded me of something. One summer we were sitting out in lawn chair in the carport and my older son’s gf threw a few combos towards a chipmunk and the little critter stuffed them into her cheeks! Those cheeks can stretch!
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Ha… yes they can. They must hold about twenty sunflower seeds it seems.
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This is awesome Li. Though I can understand as their landlord, you may have some concerns regarding all the digging they are doing.
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Thanks, Sadje. I don’t like to be thought of as their landlord. We share space on the planet. I’m sure they were here long before I was. Maybe they are the landlords allowing me to lay concrete on their land? lol
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Perhaps! That’s a good way of looking at things.
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Fascinating Lisa. Intrepid little buggers… 🙂✌🏼🫶🏼
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I love to watch them ❤
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Yep, a beach town I’ve frequented – ground squirrels love the rocky shore. Tourists, so they’re pretty bold. Sit quiet and they’ll investigate for food. You learn how their little claw feet grab onto any texture including your legs. Love critters. (funny how rats have no charm)
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Good question of why chipmunks are lovable and rats are despicable. Just looked at birth rates: chipmunks give birth to 4-5 babies twice a year. Take a google and see rats reproduce exponentially more than that. https://rodentguide.com/how-many-babies-do-rats-have/ I think I see why they are a little less charming!
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We don’t have them here but they do sound cute 😊
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They are extremely cute and yes they dig a few holes but I just don’t see those holes hurting anything.
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We call them Alvins… LOL! They are all over our neighborhood, too. I wrote about another animal that plagues our neighborhood. Gotta love living in Michigan. All kinds of critters. xx
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I think urban and suburban neighborhoods get more riled up about them than rural areas. I know some people poison them, but when raptors and other predators eat them they also get poisoned 😦 I love how they have been characterized as Chip and Dale and Alvin and The Chipmunks. Calling them Alvins is adorable! So much better than some animals have been portrayed (wolves, bats, sharks, etc.)
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What an entertaining (and educating) acrostic! Loving the visual aids and the conversation in Comments. Thanks for all the extras Lisa.
Mr Chip is a cute squilley-friend.
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Kathy thanks very much and glad you enjoyed the post and comments 🙂
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Now it’s making more sense why I so rarely see them. Fun and informative at the same time 🙂
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Thanks, Dale! They are lucky they live in burrows or the neighbor’s cats would wipe them out like they did the rabbits.
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No kidding!!
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