4/9/11

The chipmunks are my favorite. They come to fill their cheeks with the seeds the birds throw out of the saucer onto the deck. Up until now I've seen them rustling speedily in the leaves and in & out of the many stack rock walls. They've come to the deck, but never stayed when I came out and sat down. Though they're pretty fidgety, they are going about their business, vacuuming up seeds, not even flinching when I move, though I'm only a yard away. They trust easily, likely because they know they are much faster than me. Anyway, I figure one's a boy and one's a girl. Right now they are busy collecting stash and can't seem to stand each other. They scramble whenever they meet on the course; running from fill up at the deck to bouncing up the stairs to their little hole of a house maybe 40 yards up the hill. Each stops a couple of times along their bounce back up tp look around, make sure they're not being followed. They can take two of the 18 inch deep stairs at once. Looks like 20 stairs. The fatter one with the red fuzz on his butt seems to be the boy. He's the one in pursuit.
It looks like it's squirrel o'clock with 2 chipmunks, 2 gray squirrels (one's pretty ratty, easy to identify. we'll call him 'Patches'.) and red squirrel who is more nervous than the rest, but the cutest of course.*
And there's of course the mythical black squirrel... who came and went with a flash. Like a sighting you're not sure really happened..
...or maybe there's actually 3 chipmunks and they're all fighting for territory.
As dusk happens everyone seems to disappear. Except the juncos of course.

*I've since learned that the adorable red squirrels are 'bad squirrels'. They are carnivorous and steal eggs out of nests. Cradle robbing cute red squirrels.