CHITMONKS! Hackees and Grinnies

Ajidamoo (Ojibwe) - ground squirrel?

Second cousins of rabbits, first cousins of squirrels, of their own tribe - the Marmotini, which sounds like a cocktail only Caligula would imbibe - the chipmunk.

They only exist in America. Oh, and Siberia. So, I got that wrong, but you know, science is fluid.

The world was one once, watch it turn.

I see them, or maybe the same one, in the ruined walls of the old farmhouse here, sharing space with their cousins, deferring to birds by the pond. I wonder on their aptitude. Like coney for rabbits (Coney Island was once full of bunnies), chipmunks have their own colloquial names from days of you know, yore. Yawn! You might be thinking, but I like the fact that 18th Century New Yorkers would only know a chipmunk as a hackee yet Pennsylvanians knew them as grinnies.

They are semi-solitary. They can climb trees but prefer to dig tunnels. They store and carry food for upcoming weeks in their cheeks. Apparently they can build underground homes with dens that can be 12 feet long. They hang out in these places for hours, staying away from hawks and foxes and snakes. They also sleep all night long, feeling safe in their solitude, not having primal urges or having to chat with siblings or parents. They hibernate too.

They are basically stoners, fed up and stupid on the seed.

That’s a west coast one that let me get close. I was on the west coast at the time so it worked out. I don’t have super binoculars or a drone.

“Chip!” is what they say, I don’t hear an accent but I know what it means.

“I’m working here! Feck off! Unless you have some feckin’ peanuts or sunflower seeds or some hippy granola type shtuff! Chip?”

I am sorry about that anthropomorphisation there. Disney started it though.

They are fun to watch, individual, fast as fluffy striped lightning.

Here by the pond one or two munks hoover up all the chaff, and if there was a collective noun for them it would be a ‘scurry’

but seeing as there are never enough of them around it would be difficult to cook up a chipmunk curry. Munchies!