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Where Did My Birdseed Go? |
Living close to the woods gives us many opportunities for viewing the local wildlife. My wife and I really enjoy feeding the birds and feel blessed that we have so many different varieties visiting our seven feeders. That may sound like overkill but each one serves a different type of customer. Some folks stop feeding the birds during the summer but we keep the diner open all year. I suppose the free lunch is why we have so many visitors. So far this year, the little guys have packed away 350 pounds of sunflower seeds, dozens of suet cakes and 30 pounds of thistle seed. Nobody goes away hungry!
As a side benefit, we get other guests at the dinner table besides the birds. The day shift includes red squirrels, gray squirrels, black squirrels and of course Tamias striatus. Our nighttime visitors include raccoons, rabbits, flying squirrels, possum, and an occasional red fox. We think the red fox is looking for some of the other dinner guests. So who is Tamias striatus? Well, most of us just call him a chipmunk. They happily scurry around the yard filling their cheeks with seeds that have fallen to the ground. Chipmunks really don’t do any harm except for all the burrows they dig around the cottage. During our first year we didn’t think about it too much, but it didn’t take long to notice the population explosion. Chipmunks usually have two litters per year. Each contains 4 to 5 young and they live for an average of 2-3 years. A mathematician could calculate how we became overrun with chipmunks in such short order!
After becoming enlightened, I began what I call the Chipmunk Relocation Program. I was hoping for some government funding but I quickly realized that I must wage this war on my own. I bought a Havahart trap and began the battle. Using the same seed as in the feeders, I met with instant success. I was catching so many that I constructed the Chipmunk Scoreboard, which proudly hangs in the garage. After each one is trapped, I take them on a ride. We drive two miles down the road where they are introduced to their new digs in the State Forest. So far this year, the count on the Scoreboard is 27 and I got a late start. One helpful neighbor has suggested that they are following me back home and I am catching the same ones over an over. Suggestions have been made about painting their tails red to see if I’ll recognize any returning guests. In six years I have relocated 162 chipmunks and although some are looking mighty familiar, the Relocation Program will continue.
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