Chippie!

Lately, in addition to the usual birds and squirrel, there’s been a chipmunk visiting our yard.  So every morning I’ve been sprinkling sunflower seeds out for him & the birds, and peanuts for the squirrel.  However, the chippie has taken it upon himself to stuff ALL of the above into his cheeks and race off with it to his den.  I figure after last winter’s Polar Vortex, he’s not taking ANY chances!!!  My family will have already seen this on my Facebook page, but since my FB is reserved for [mostly] family only, I wanted to post here too.  The peanuts are the funniest thing to watch him wrestle with – he has to use both hands to shove each one in!

[1] pick up peanut.  [2] stuff into left cheek.  [3] pick up 2nd peanut.  [4] stuff into right cheek.  [5] pick up 3rd peanut & hold gingerly with front teeth.  [6] run like hell back to den.  [7] repeat until all tasty peanuts are gone.  [8] begin stuffing sunflower seeds into cheeks until ready to burst.  repeat steps 6-8 until [a] exhausted, or [b] seeds are gone.

I usually take photos for my blog with my phone, but since I was taking these through the screen door [and my phone tends to focus on the screen, not the subject matter] I took the above pics with my Nikon D60 digital SLR which makes the screen miraculously disappear.

While all of this is going on, usually with the birds and squirrel competing for the seeds & peanuts, Darwin and Bonkers are glued to the yard door with their faces inches from the screen.  Usually after about 10 minutes, Darwin gets FURIOUS that he can’t catch any of them – he presses his whole face against the screen like “maybe if i push a little harder i can get out and kill you!!!” then he bitch-slaps Bonkers and runs into the other room growling.  He was so mad the other day he knocked Bonkers flat then bit my ankle!