PARKOURING CHIPMUNK

I was sitting on the back porch reading when my son Alex came out and pointed towards the woods. “The chipmunk feeder is working out great.” He said with a laugh.

“What?” I looked up from my book and sure enough there was a chipmunk sitting on the ledge of my new bird feeder. “Oh, come on!” I cried as I turned my book upside down on the table next to me and stood up. “I bought that feeder specifically because they said it was squirrel proof!”

“Well, in their defense they didn’t say it was chipmunk proof.” Alex corrected me.

We watched as some house finches tried to land on the feeder only to be chased off by the chipmunk within seconds.

“Can’t you at least share the feeder?” I yelled out to him.

“I’m guessing he’s not in a sharing mood right now.” Alex said.

We watched as the chipmunk jumped from the feeder onto the Shepherds hook the bird feeder was hanging from, sliding down the pole like a fireman headed for the trucks.

Before he hit the ground he jumped off the pole and landed on a rock that bordered our path to the shed. He quickly looked around, his cheeks stuffed with bird seed, before hopping from rock to rock until he got to our fire pit. He jumped up on the ledge and stopped to looked around again. When he was satisfied that the coast was clear he jumped up the steps of our deck hopping up on the arm of an Adirondack chair and began adjusting the seeds in his mouth.

“Got enough?” I asked him.

My voice made him look up and when he saw Alex and I he jumped from the arm of the chair through the rungs of the deck and landed on the back of another chair.

“Well, that was impressive.” I looked over at Alex. “He looked like he was flying and totally stuck the landing!”

Alex nodded in agreement. “He certainly has some awesome parkour skills.”

We looked over the railing and watched the chipmunk quickly scamper across our patio, taking one last look around before diving into the entrance of his burrow that he’d dug under our downspout.

I looked back at the half empty bird feeder that the two house finches were finally getting a chance to use.

“I guess I should fill the feeder.” I sighed as I went to get the container of bird seed.

“Really?” Alex looked confused. “You know the chipmunk is going to be back up there emptying it out again.”

“I know.” I picked up the bird seed container that we kept in the corner of the deck. “But you have to admit he was kind of fun to watch.”

As I walked down the steps headed for the feeder the two house finches, who had been busy filling up while the chipmunk was away, flew into a nearby tree.

“I know you two want to try the newest feeder but I think you might be better off using the old feeders for now.” I pointed to the two feeders that were squirrel and chipmunk proof next to the bird bath.

“I’m not sure they can understand you.” Alex called from the porch and began laughing.

“You never know.” I said as I took down the feeder and began filling it with seeds looking over at the two house finches that were watching me. “You just never know.”