Day of the Chipmunks

March 10, 2020

It's amazing how wildlife is so in tune. As soon as there is just enough water to swim in at Lakeside Park, a pair of mallards appear as if from nowhere. The first mallards I have seen since winter hit us. With the snow melting, and water now gushing from the drainage pipes underneath the walkway, a large enough area had thawed out into the lake. The mallards really seemed to be enjoying the water and the warm morning sunlight.

Canada geese had also landed on the lake in pairs, honking away in courtship, as if to hurry the melting of the ice.

The temperature today was to move up into double figures and all of the wildlife at the park seemed to know it. It was to be a beautifully warm and sunny March 9th.

These two, tiny red squirrels were making the most of the warm sunlight. They were keeping an eye on me and also on the crazy amount of activity going on at ground level.

That leads me on to the title of this post, and if I ever had cause to name a day then this day would be "Chipmunk Day." I have never seen so many chipmunks together in one location before. This was a great photo opportunity, but I soon realized that stalking my quarry was a useless tactic, as there were simply too many of them to keep track of and they were moving really fast.

Scampering over fallen branches.

Disappearing into their tunnels, and then reappearing from another hole.

Coming so close at times that I found it difficult to obtain focus.

I felt that I needed to put a little space between the chipmunks and my camera. I headed out of the dense jumble of bushes and fallen branches, out into some open terrain. And, as soon as I did, the chipmunks disappeared. I did happen to see a grackle though and this beautiful male red-winged blackbird.

As it proclaimed its territory to the world.

But there were no chipmunks and this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So, I headed back into the dense cover of branches, adopting a different tactic. I found a good spot to sit, and this time I waited for the chipmunks to come to me. And, come to me they did. In fact, coming so close that they quite literally ran right past my boots.

Please excuse my humour, but the three wise chipmunks were in attendance.

Mizaru, who sees no evil.

Kikazaru, who hears no evil.

And Iwazaru who of course, speaks no evil.

Chipmunks also covet the black walnuts so loved by their larger tree-climbing cousins.

I soon realized that this was not the perfect location, as I was at times looking into the sunlight, and so I moved to the edge of the trees.

To the small stream feeding the lake from the water that I mentioned earlier, gushing from the pipes under the walkway.

This was a much better position, with the sunlight behind me, and adequate space between myself and the chipmunks.

I was disturbed momentarily by the movement of a shadow on the snow in front of me. I looked behind and then above. Directly above me was a little downy woodpecker who was working on the tree that I was leaning on. It is surprising how effective, just sitting motionless can be.

The woodpecker moved on, and I turned my attention back to the chipmunks.

The chipmunks appeared to be everywhere that I looked.

Chasing each other and then pausing for a split second to register my presence.

My final photo before I left the lake that day shows a chipmunk on a huge tree stump. I really enjoyed how they would enter through a hole near the base of the stump and then appear like a jack in the box out of the top. I love chipmunks, but even I have to acknowledge that this was a little too much, cute overload.

To balance out some of the cuteness, I'm going back a few days to some photos taken on the 5th of March. They're of a large red-tailed hawk that I was able to capture at Lakeside Park as it waited and watched from its vantage point, high up in a tree near the seated area.