For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Good morning everyone! Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation Day!! If you have chipmunks where you live, why not give them a peanut? If you don’t have chipmunks, wear something brown today! After all, chipmunks are among the cutest animals on earth. But they do have limited distribution, of the 25 species of chipmunks all but one are found in North America. The Siberian chipmunk is found in Russia, through northern China and northern Japan. They are also found in small numbers in some northern European countries due to people keeping them as pets in the 1950s and 60s.
The practice was banned however and many chipmunks were let loose in country areas. Only 5 species are found here in Canada, two are in our area here, the eastern chipmunk which is the largest chipmunk species and one of the western chipmunks which are quite a bit smaller. All the ones that come here for peanuts are the eastern chipmunk. I will give more facts about our fascinating little friends later today. Pocket and Coffee have been the only two here this morning so far. Jasper came for a while too. Jasper and Coffee jumped up onto the step at the same time, wow, did they jump! And ran off in opposite directions!
Jasper hid in a box while Coffee ran off the deck. Jasper came back out, grabbed a peanut and went back under a box to eat it in peace. Meanwhile Coffee came back, took what he could carry and left again. Pocket came too and spotted Jasper in the box so he stopped and looked. Then he realized it was okay, just Jasper, so he too filled up with peanuts and left. Freddie, the squirrel, was here this morning again. I don’t really want him around, just Jasmine and Jasper. Too many squirrels will cause problems when I start to feed the birds again. And Freddie is kind of a mean squirrel, but he’s still afraid of Jasmine!
Not many dragonflies around anymore, so I probably missed a few species this year for pictures. I hope that nice green one is still around though. We do have other green dragonflies, but this one is different, more of a metallic green, I have not seen this one before this year. There’s a couple others I hadn’t seen before this year as well, but I did get pictures of them. Now I need to identify all these dragonflies so I can start showing their pictures. Maybe I’ll be able to walk down to the river today, but it is quite cloudy, and we have had a little rain already too. Hmm, I need to bake a cake this morning too. Muffin is waiting impatiently to help out. Actually, I think she went to bed. Oh well, she’ll help with the eating anyway. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Β©2021 Steve McLeod.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE ! …is it Muffinβs birthday too ?…great pics of the chipmunks ! And the info accompanying them ! Have a wonderful day ! ππβοΈβοΈπ₯πΏπΏπΏπΏπΏπ₯
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much Sharon! It has turned out to be quite nice after starting out cloudy with showers. No, Muffin’s birthday is in January.ππΈπ»ππππππ§¨π
LikeLike
Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation Day! I’m sure the chipmunks appreciate you…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Jim, had a good time with them this morning. Tried to get a pic of Scooter but every time my camera came out, he went to hide!ππΉ
LikeLiked by 2 people
I guess Scooter is not into social media…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure he’ll learn soon enough!
LikeLiked by 1 person
π
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation Day!!!! Thanks for letting us know and for the great info, I do normally see them but will wear brown! πβοΈπ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Beverly, and you as well! They are such amazing little animals!ππΊππΏπΏπΏπΏπΏπΏπ₯π₯π₯
LikeLiked by 1 person
Youβre welcome Steve, thank you! Yes indeed, so glad you can enjoy them! πππΏπ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, they are quite abundant up this way!ππΊ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very nice! ππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation day β¨π and Also, your Birthday ππππ₯Hope your blueberry maple cake is ready π Have funπ€
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Simon! Enjoying the day and the cake (BURP), there’s still some left though.ππΉππ§¨π
LikeLike
I would love to take a bite, it’s okay, it’s little far, I can’t reach it last night π Did muffin surprise you? πΊ how was the cake ππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, it was quite a surprise alright! I knew she was up to something!ππ»π»
LikeLiked by 1 person
πππThat was awesome β¨β€οΈπ₯ Thank you muffin πΊπ€
LikeLiked by 1 person
πΊπΊπΈπΈπ»π»π½π½
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are you sleeping Muffin? Time to wake up Steve πΊπdon’t tell him I told u to do it βΊοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Muffin is having her pre bedtime nap. So I caught you!π³π€¨π
LikeLike
π§π³um, what did you caught? I wasn’t talking to muffin, I swear didn’t ask her to wake you up ππ€π oh come on! believe me π₯Ίππ π
LikeLike
Happy Birthday Steve!! π₯³ I thought that your birthday was today, but I wasnβt sure. Sharonβs comment (your sister, right?) gave me reassurance that is is indeed, todayβs I hope that you are having a fantastic day! βοΈπ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so very much Hilary! Yes, Sharon is my sister. Yep, it is definitely fantastic, though I did have to change some plans because of the weather. Cake turned out great though and Muffin and I feasted on that!ππΊπ»ππππ§¨πππ½
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope that your birthday was good overall! π€π That sounds lovely that you got to celebrate with cake. Hopefully the cake isnβt chocolate flavored because cats canβt have chocolate (sorry, Muffin!)
Speaking of things cats like to feast on, apparently mine likes curry buns. He ate an entire curry bun on his own the other day, which was supposed to be my breakfast. Iβm surprised he wasnβt sick afterwards.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a fantastic birthday even with the change in plans. Blueberry maple is just a white cake with blueberries and maple flavoring really. Muffin can’t resist it, she loves anything maple flavored!π»ππ
Cats do have their odd favorites, odd for them anyway. Muffin always wants the first slice of bread from a freshly opened loaf. She usually just eats half, the gulls get the rest. I can’t eat the bread, I just buy it to feed the gulls.ππΊ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Blueberry maple seems to be your favorite flavor lol I have yet to try blueberry maple – it sounds delicious. Was it gluten free? π
There is something about bread that cats really like. My childhood cat loved bread too….and muffins (which sounds disturbing considering that your cat is named Muffin)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it was gluten free. I kind of cheated a bit this time and used a mix, adding my own blueberries and maple to a white cake mix. Still tasted the same though. I can also make it from scratch, it’s a little harder with gluten free flour than it was before though.
I had another cat that used to like bread too, kind of odd, but something there they really like.π€π»
LikeLiked by 1 person
I donβt think itβs cheating if the mix itself was gluten free! I agree that baking from scratch is more work, and can be quite time consuming.
We cheated last week and bought Costco cake instead of making our own cake. Our new kitchen is small and doesnβt have much storage at all, so I havenβt been tempted to bake since moving here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I don’t have much counter space so baking is a bit more challenging than at my last apartment. I keep having to move a bunch of stuff to do things so I hardly bake at all now. Too bad, I enjoy baking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is my current struggle as well. I canβt even keep the kitchenaid out on my counter since moving to the townhouse, whereas it was always on the counter at my last place.
LikeLike
There are no chipmunks where I live but we do have arctic ground squirrels. Enjoy all the chipmunks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You must be further north than I thought. Are you still in the forested areas?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, on the 65th latitude North. The woods have white and black spruce, paper birch, quaking aspen, red alder, cottonwood, willow, tamarack. Lots of mosquitos too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would explain why no chipmunks. Yes, I can imagine mosquitoes would be bad up there! Bad enough around here, except this year, too dry so there is hardly any around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The birds love the mosquitos and we have clouds of them. Even if it does not rain, we have marshy land that breeds its of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mosquitos are an important food source for many critters. Do you have a lot of dragonflies?
LikeLiked by 1 person
We do have dragonflies but I haven’t seen any this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Last year we didn’t have many, but this year there are lots of them and varieties I haven’t seen before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation Day! And happy birthday too!π₯³πΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Rossana! Have a great Thursday!ππΊπ
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was not a day for chipmunks!!ππ who stays they get their own day??π€¨π€¨ π€π€π€
LikeLiked by 1 person
Squirrels have their own day too, in January, chipmunks have theirs in June.ππππ
LikeLike
Okay.. hey give me a few minutes to finish supper.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No problem, I have lots of comments to catch up on.
LikeLike
Im here when you’re ready.π
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy International Chipmunk Appreciation Day! And happy birthday from Callie and her humans! π₯³π»
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much Callie and humans!! It was a most wonderful birthday and Chipmunk Appreciation Day!ππ»ππΏπΏπΏπΏπΏπΏπ₯π₯
LikeLike