Critters, Garden, Village Life
Got ‘Im!
Ha! Finally got a photo of one of the yellow Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies!
I’m loving all the butterflies we’re seeing this year, thanks to the new butterfly bushes.
We have some new residents in the yard, too. They’re half-pint sized baby chipmunks. They’re living with Momma Chippie in a burrow she’s created underneath my raised garden that has irises and three big cherry tomato plants.
They are incredibly cute! I’ve alway thought chipmunks were cute, but BABY chipmunks - OMG! They’re adorable!
However.
As I was watching the baby chippies last weekend, one of them hopped up and sat on the side of the raised bed to munch on something. Adorable! Cute! What a show! Awwww! And what is that its eating? It’s a little big for a berry and its bright red and…
YOU LITTLE STRIPED RAT! YOU’RE EATING MY RIPE CHERRY TOMATOES!
Obviously, Momma Chipmunk picked the spot for her burrow because of its prime location - right next to the tomato grocery store.
Since the weekend, the baby chippies have eaten every single tomato the moment it’s ripened. For the rest of the summer, I’m obviously going to have to pick my tomatoes a trifle on the green side, and let them ripen inside if we want to eat any of MY tomatoes.
Humpfh!
20 Aug 2008 JAS
We have about 5 different Chipmunks that I’ve been able to identify by the paths they take from our various birdfeeders. I’ve yet to see any babies though. Doesn’t matter - the adults are so darned cut I think my head would explode if I ever saw a baby.
Who knew that they’d eat the tomatoes! I have a rather lovely visual of a miniature Chippy chowing on a tomato that is probably about it’s own size. Sorry JAS, but the visual is just squeezably adorable.
Kris, the babies really are absolutely incredibly adorable… but they’re still incredibly adorable thieving varmints! The cherry tomatoes are ‘just their size,’ so maybe next year I’ll grow full sized tomatoes, and make it harder for the little buggers to tote them off!