Chipmunks!

[Just Wonderin]

Has anyone else noticed the absence of chipmunks this year? We used to have a lot of chipmunks constantly running around our yard, and so far this year, we haven't seen a single one...squirrels seem to be more sparse as well.

[DRH]

Here in West Alton we have chipmunks, red squirrels and gray squirrels this year. In fact, I think we have have more squirrels now than we did last year. Their population seems to go in cycles ... more one year, fewer the next.

[Orion]

They must have moved to DRH's place. Seriously, we have not seen one red squirrel here on our side of Cow Island where we had dozens last year. The chipmunks were among the missing also, until we saw one running around very nervously over the last week. He was much more timid than I've seen them before. There seems to be more owls than prior years and that could explain it.

[Merrymeeting]

They must have moved south during the long, cold winter. While I haven't yet spent enough time at the lake to measure the population there, I'm being overrun with them in N-central MA.

Anyone who really misses them is welcome to come down and take as many as you want.

[Rose]

Originally Posted by Merrymeeting

They must have moved south during the long, cold winter. While I haven't yet spent enough time at the lake to measure the population there, I'm being overrun with them in N-central MA.

Anyone who really misses them is welcome to come down and take as many as you want.

We're also in North Central MA, and at this point in time, my husband traps 2 a day, unless a vole has gotten into one of the traps. I'm sure if he had more traps, he'd trap more.

[Newbiesaukee]

We, also, have noted the absence of chipmunks this year but we have seen a few red squirrels. Last year lots of 'munks but only rare red squirrel. It does seem to cycle but grey squirrels seem stable. Here, on Long Island, the deer population also seems to cycle with weather and hunt and there seem fewer this year also.

[John A. Birdsall]

We lost our pet chipmunk, he got hungry in the spring and jumped into a bucket looking for food. It could not get out, what a horrible way to go.

We had a fox terrior growing up and she loved to chase chipmunks, only caught one, and it was by its tail. But let one walk across the yard and she would go nuts. Gotta love them little critters.

[nj2nh]

Lots of chipmunks here in Jersey. More than usual. Lots of squirrels, too. They are nothing but rats with fluffy tails.

When my brother and I were kids, my parents had one of those Have-A-Heart Traps up at the lake. My dad and brother would bait it and leave it outside. We caught some poor critter every day. We just let them go, rebait the thing and catch another. Wouldn't fly nowadays.

Once, we caught a red squirrel. I can't quite remember why on earth we brought the trap onto the porch (screened in), but the poor thing managed to escape. It went understandably crazy, running around trying to escape. I guess we finally opened one of the many doors to the porch and it got out, but I don't remember exactly.

Certainly not something I would like to revisit. We had a raccoon on the porch once back in 1993. No idea how it got there. No idea how it got out. Kinda scary.

nj2nh

[tis]

We and our neighbors have been remarking about the lack of chipmunks this year in our area. I wonder why some places seem to have them and some don't.

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Originally Posted by DRH

Here in West Alton we have chipmunks, red squirrels and gray squirrels this year. In fact, I think we have have more squirrels now than we did last year. Their population seems to go in cycles ... more one year, fewer the next.

DRH, would you like to borrow our Have a Heart trap? It sounds like you would have some takers on where to relocate your critters. I do think you are correct about the cycle thing.

[DRH]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Gal

DRH, would you like to borrow our Have a Heart trap? It sounds like you would have some takers on where to relocate your critters. I do think you are correct about the cycle thing.

Hmmm, your place is pretty close to ours so it would be very convenient for me to make some "deliveries" to your house, RG. Yes, I think I would like to borrow your trap!

[Lakesrider]

Don't know about your town, but here where I am, there were not so many acorns from the trees last year. I was told that the lack of rain caused the trees to protect themselves and not make as many nuts. So couple that with the bad winter where they couldn't get to their storage areas....maybe did them in.
I also noticed the 2 fox that live in my woods were very skinny this spring. I don't think they could get to any of the little rodent/critters through the thick snow cover. By the time they smelled them under the snow the little guys were off in there little habitrails. We had a red tail squirrle that had packed whatever acorns he could find down a little hole in my yard. The hole got covered under 3 feet of snow. Never saw him/her again. I raked my yard in Nashua. Tons of acorns. I bagged them up and brought them up here. didn't help I guess.

[Fishy Cover]

I was mowing my lawn and as I rounded the corner of my house I saw a chipmunk running at full speed along the top of my retaining wall. Right behind him was a mink! The chipmunk dove into a big hole (4" dia) right behind the retaining wall and the mink went in after it, at least as far as he would fit. The mink slowly backed out holding the chipmunk in his paws, then put the chipmunk in his mouth, jumped in the lake and swam away underwater.

I have been here 27 years and have seen mink many times but this is the first time I've seen a mink attack a chipmunk.

[dpg]

Minks are nasty little suckers!

[chipj29]

One of my cats brings me at least a chipmunk a week. She is a mighty little hunter! She isn't catching the small ones either, some of them have been pretty big!

[Sal]

I've noticed that if we have seen a fox in the yard, we don't see many chipmunks for a while and those few we do see act very apprehensively.
Hmmm. Is there a connection?

[jrc]

New bumper sticker:

Make a coat save a chipmunk

[Argie's Wife]

I didn't realize there were mink in the area... I'm now wondering if what I thought was a small otter in my back yard early last spring was really mink... hmmmmm......

[Slickcraft]

Last fall we saw a mink and in the winter a weasel, both near the house. This year we have not seen a single chipmunk where in past years we had a healthy population.

[Grady223]

Originally Posted by Argie's Wife

I didn't realize there were mink in the area... I'm now wondering if what I thought was a small otter in my back yard early last spring was really mink... hmmmmm......

Before the mink industry moved to Michigan, GLAMMA (as in Black Glamma Mink) stands for the Great Lakes Mink Association, the US mink capital was the Lakes Region. When they all moved to Michigan, they took their breeding mink and let the others go. So, we have a lot of mink (which is a weasel) in and around the Lake. We have a family in our breakwater every year - they are cute and industrious - off fishing every night - often see piles of lake mussels where they had been feeding. Just stay clear - they are nasty.

As far as chipmunks are concerned, we saw a normal population on Barndoor Island this year but red squirrels were rare while the gray squirrel population was up considerably.

[KonaChick]

Originally Posted by Argie's Wife

I didn't realize there were mink in the area... I'm now wondering if what I thought was a small otter in my back yard early last spring was really mink... hmmmmm......

We have a mink family that's been living under our lower level porch for 7 years now. I think mink are longer and skinnier than otter. I did not realize we even had otter here...anyone?

[Chickie]

I had a close encounter with either a mink or a weasel a few years back, which I’ve never forgotten. I don’t know which it was as they look so much alike. A killdeer had nested in my back yard and had four young chicks. If you are not familiar with killdeer, they nest on the open ground and the chicks hatch out with feathers fully grown and the ability to run about immediately. To protect them from predators, a mother will do what is described as the “broken wing act”. It will fly away from her young and lead the predator to believe it is injured by lying on the ground and flapping one wing as if it is broken. The predator perceives it to be an injured bird and easy prey, so the tactic diverts attention away from the chicks and towards the mother.

On this particular day, the killdeer was tending to her young when either a mink or weasel came out of the tall grass nearby. As any good killdeer mother would do, she flew from her chicks and landed some distance away on the lawn. She fell to her side with outstretched wing flapping and began the ruse. The mink sprang after her and was dangerously close to having a killdeer dinner. Hoping to avert a catastrophe, I started clapping my hands and shouting loudly, thinking it would turn tail and run off. On the contrary, it turned and started coming after ME! Never has this old girl run more swiftly than she did that day. The animal soon gave up chase and I reached my porch unscathed, vowing never again to challenge such a creature.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

Last fall we saw a mink and in the winter a weasel, both near the house. This year we have not seen a single chipmunk where in past years we had a healthy population.

Minks are the most aquatic of that family of critters. My guess would be that mink started expanding their range here about twenty years ago when people started using "dock-bubblers" to keep their docks reasonably ice-free.

"My" mink will make a burrow within a few yards of open water. The burrow's entrance is slightly larger than the typical chipmunk burrow. In Spring, you'll see piles of empty mussel shells stacked or scattered under those "open" docks. In snow, the mink's muddy pathway to the lake's open water is readily apparent: by comparison, the entrance to a chipmunk's burrow is neat and clean.

Originally Posted by KonaChick

We have a mink family that's been living under our lower level porch for 7 years now. I think mink are longer and skinnier than otter. I did not realize we even had otter here...anyone?

Below, you'll see a photograph I borrowed showing an otter as it slid into the lake at Wolfeboro's bridge downtown in mid-August. Otters are bigger than all the other aquatic critters mentioned here, and poses no threat to other mammals. Otters feed nearly exclusively on fish.

Both are on the skinny side, but mink are definitely smaller—even tiny in comparison. Weasels are about 50% larger than red squirrels, and can have a coat that can change to a lighter coat (or lighter "highlights") as Fall approaches.

Originally Posted by Chickie

"...I had a close encounter with either a mink or a weasel a few years back, which I’ve never forgotten. I don’t know which it was as they look so much alike..."

Minks are pretty small. I watched as one ran out from under a deck, paused on top of a rock, then silently dove into the lake and disappeared. Weasels are larger and curious. With camera in hand, I surprised a weasel on my porch. It immediately ran over and examined my shoes!

There does seem to be a correlation between the quantity of chipmunks and the presence of those weaselly-carnivores. (Which may hold true for red squirrel numbers, too).

Except for black bear and bobcat, we've seen most of what Mother Nature has in the Winnipesaukee area: Most of Nature's visits is by chipmunks—and most often by "Alfie".

"Alfie" will alert me to an empty bird feeder by perching on a porch chair and staring through the porch window. (Where my computer is located). If I'm too busy to respond, he will sit up and beg. When Alfie's feeling totally ignored, he will start glaring and put one or two paws on the window until I comply.

I really got Alfie trained, huh?

[Janet]

Last week we saw a mink run from the rocks under our dock into the water and swam out of sight. We were in a cove off of Swallow Point Road off the Neck Road in Moultonboro. Not sure who was more surprised - the mink or us!

[tis]

We had two minks get in a fight last week. At first I thought the mink was fighting another animal but it turned out it was another mink. They were NOT happy with each other! We have never seen that before.
A bit off topic but, we had a baby duck here today who lost her mother. She/he had been chirping and I fed her. But she was still unhappy and we were worried she might not make it through the night if we didn't try to rescue her. So we went looking for her mama and the other babies and found them and sure enough she had one missing. So we came back and caught this baby and I held her in my lap and we took her in the boat back to her mother. I can't believe how calmy she sat in my lap. She hardly moved. It was like she knew what we were doing. I thought being in the boat would scare her to death but she was fine. We dropped her off with her mother and brothers and sisters. What a wonderful experience it was!

[BGB2]

This story is from someone I knew who worked in a hardware that sold Havaheart traps.

A customer with a squirrel infestation problem wanted a trap or some humane way to get rid of the critters. After purchasing the trap the customer asked what to do with the squirrels. The store owner said he told everyone who purchased a trap to just go to the outskirts of town near the park at xyz street and let the animals go. The customers response? Hey, that's where I live!!!

I can't prove the story is true, but the story is logical and entertaining. If you trap woodchucks, squirrels, etc., there can be humor value in where you let them free.

[SteveA]

Originally Posted by tis

We had two minks get in a fight last week. At first I thought the mink was fighting another animal but it turned out it was another mink. They were NOT happy with each other! We have never seen that before.
A bit off topic but, we had a baby duck here today who lost her mother. She/he had been chirping and I fed her. But she was still unhappy and we were worried she might not make it through the night if we didn't try to rescue her. So we went looking for her mama and the other babies and found them and sure enough she had one missing. So we came back and caught this baby and I held her in my lap and we took her in the boat back to her mother. I can't believe how calmy she sat in my lap. She hardly moved. It was like she knew what we were doing. I thought being in the boat would scare her to death but she was fine. We dropped her off with her mother and brothers and sisters. What a wonderful experience it was!

Nice work TIS.... made me smile.

[chipj29]

Originally Posted by tis

We had two minks get in a fight last week. At first I thought the mink was fighting another animal but it turned out it was another mink. They were NOT happy with each other! We have never seen that before.
A bit off topic but, we had a baby duck here today who lost her mother. She/he had been chirping and I fed her. But she was still unhappy and we were worried she might not make it through the night if we didn't try to rescue her. So we went looking for her mama and the other babies and found them and sure enough she had one missing. So we came back and caught this baby and I held her in my lap and we took her in the boat back to her mother. I can't believe how calmy she sat in my lap. She hardly moved. It was like she knew what we were doing. I thought being in the boat would scare her to death but she was fine. We dropped her off with her mother and brothers and sisters. What a wonderful experience it was!

How did you know the mother duck was missing a baby?

[tis]

Because she had six and we went and found her first to see if one was missing and it was. Luckily, we did find her. So then we went back and caught the baby and took it over to her. These are babies (and Mom) that hung around most of the time, so we were familiar with them.

[Island Life]

We no longer have many chipmunk or squirrels on our island despite the surplus of acorns. We've attributed it to the eagles who frequent the island. At home, we're also seeing a marked decrease in the number of squirrels. While we don't have eagles here, we have lots of red tailed hawks and other predators. I've read something recently about the correlation between the rise in numbers of large predatory birds and the decrease in numbers of small critters.

[SIKSUKR]

I used to have about 10 squirrels living in the trees outside my commercial property on the Merrimack River.We have two resident hawks that live on a window sill the last 3 years.They have eaten all but 2 of the squirrels and a big bonus is they have totally wiped out all the pigeons that used to hang around!

[Grant]

No shortage of chipmunks in our neck of the woods. However, for a most of this year, I thought we'd lost a long-time rival -- an otter that has taken to using our boathouse as a "latrine" (go ahead and Google "otter latrine" for an explanation.

Last week, as I was packing up stuff for a trip home after fetching kids from camps, I went down to the boathouse, only to discover that my pooping/sliming nemesis had just fled. Wet footprints, tail tracks and, yep, ample scat and malodorous mucus slime. It was the first "visit" by the critter since last winter. When I visited in November, he'd taken a PFD down from a hook and pooped all over it. He also loves to deposit his waste on an 8x8 beam that I use to support a canoe and small boat during the winter. In previous years, he'd made numerous stops during the season, but nothing this year until last week.

This was the second time I had missed him by seconds. He typically swims into the boat slip, jumps out, runs around the top of the slip, poops/marks, and then splits. I know it's not a mink, as we've had them along the shore forever, and it's not mink behavior. Still, I've never seen the character. I'm sure he's left more "presents" since I left... I'll be back soon enough to clean them up. Ugh.

Apologies for hijacking a chipmunk thread. But no shortage of those little dudes this year at all.