Show from Sept 9, 2007 Chipmunks, squirrels

Good morning Gardeners. It’s another beautiful day in Manitoba and I’m glad you’re here to share it with me. It’s a cool day – fall temperatures have taken over, but on the plus side, there are few wasps this year and the sun will show up today for a least a bit. It’s clear that the world is getting ready for its annual sleep later this fall.

One indication is the frantic activity of the red squirrels getting ready for winter. The fellow in my back yard – at least, he uses my fence as his highway, must have quite a cache of spruce nuts in his larder as he has been working hard at storing these cones all summer. And he needs to work hard at it. Even slowing down and reducing their need for fuel, red squirrels need and eat 40 to 50 cones a day in winter! That’s a lot of foraging in the warm months. No wonder they often find a way to raid bird feeders. I think I’ll toss a few peanuts his way as a special treat this winter when it’s been really stormy.

But red squirrel is not the only guy out there working his heart out. The chipmunks are on the same quest, although their nests and larders are underground. Chipmunks do go to sleep for much of the winter, but they wake regularly for a meal from their well-stocked larders, so they need to do a lot of storing all summer. We have two of these little critters in our back yard – one lives on the right hand side of our dining table and another on the left and they fight when their paths happen to cross.

Like squirrels, chipmunks are solitary, coming together only to mate and spending their lives alone the rest of the time. But they have small territories that often overlap, especially when there is ample food. And they are omnivores, eating almost anything when the food sources are scarce, including new shoots and leaves, insects and mushrooms, fruits and earthworms, even other small animals such as frogs and salamander, but their preferred food is seeds and berries. Spring is the toughest times for them because food is scarce and they are hungry after a long, lean winter.

In our part of the world, Chipmunks generally have only one litter or about four babies in spring and the females care for their young for about 30 days, or until their eyes open and the babies venture outside. Populations tend to remain stable – there is seldom a glut of chipmunks who have many predator enemies and who life span at any rate, is only three to five years.

Red squirrels do the same, however they have developed the ability to predict when conifers are about to produce a bounty crop in a given year and then have two litters of 3 to seven offspring. This is fascinating researchers who long ago figured out that trees use a swamp and starve strategy to protect seed crops from seed eating mammals. They produce practically nothing one year in an attempt to starve out the seed eating competition, them produce copious crops the second to swamp the area so that even the most industrious squirrel won’t be able to harvest all their seeds.

Of course, in the case of the chipmunk, who often buries his food just under the surface, his seed harvesting habits often result in germination and more trees.

I like chipmunks, the friendly little fellows who chirp with gratitude when given a few peanuts. This summer, I was lucky to save a little guy from drowning in our pool, the fate of al chipmunks in the past who have ventured into our yard. Fishing him out of the pool with the pool net, I told him I was sorry as he sat shivering on the pavement, soaking wet and very frightened. I promised this would never happen again and I vowed that we would build a chipmunk ladder to help small animals leave the pool when they inadvertently fell in. Glenn did this at once, using a piece a plywood with steps nailed at chipmunk-friendly intervals, which he then hung from the driving board apparatus, into the water and over the edge of the pool.

I thought for sure the accidental swimmer would leave and we’d be chipmunkless for another summer. But he came back and another guy moved in a short tie later.

They have given us a lot of joy over the summer and there have been no more dead chipmunks, squirrels or mice in the pool since then – Well, there was one dead rabbit, but I guess the term “dumb bunny” had to come from somewhere!

Well, no dumb bunny is Kevin Twomey of T&T Seeds, especially when it comes to plants. How are you this morning, Kevin?