Chipmunk Heaven

So, unwittingly we’ve created a chipmunk heaven in our backyard. We’ve provided a home (a deck with soft soil underneath for burrowing dens and making a series of tunnels), an abundance of food (a garden filled with lovely vegetable AND a bird feeder with plenty of fallen sunflower seeds and peanuts), cover from predators (a tangle of blackcap brambles along the entire fence line in the back) and fresh water. Great for them, bad for us. They’ve decimated the beets and are taking bites out of every tomato that just starts to show a hint of red. They stripped the cherry tomatoes off when still green and have put holes in the green peppers and the jalepeño peppers. I couldn’t take it any more. I got a live trap last week and decided the population must be reduced. I couldn’t bring myself to dispatch them so decided that relocation was an acceptable alternative. Obviously still not ideal, but I had to do something. So far 7 chipmunks have a new home in the woods along the Yahara River trail. I made sure not to release them near houses because that would just be foisting my problem on someone else. I wish them well in their new home, I really do.

Who wouldn’t want to live in our backyard?

Okay, enough about chipmunks. On to the birds.

I was on my way home from relocating a chipmunk this morning, and spotted this beautiful American Kestrel enjoying a mouse breakfast. Too bad it wasn’t a chipmunk.

A Great-crested Flycatcher

We saw this Eastern Bluebird Friday on a trip we took to New Glarus.

Scarlet Tanager, Janesville.

Red-eyed Vireo, New Glarus.

Red-headed Woodpecker, New Glarus.

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