Snow goes, reluctantly, to reveal Birds and Chipmunks.
Sunday 12 April
Waking up the Garden - rather slowly.
I would like to be able to say that the snow has gone, and it had, but then on Tuesday it reminded us it was still nearby for a few hours. There is no green to speak of yet, and the wild garden will look scruffy and brown for a while. It has compensations though - a couple of weeks ago we were visited by a very early returning Northern Flicker (video below) which is still here - probably because it has found our peanut feeder. Whatever helps it to get through the day … warming up now but it’s also wet.
Until the warmer days arrive, bringing leaves that get in the way of being able to see what needs doing to our shrubs, I have been taking the opportunity to begin some long needed renovating of the red stemmed dogwoods by taking out old and dead trunks/stems, and generally opening things up. Dogwoods are pretty fundamental to this garden’s structure as they provide berries for birds and also shelter and protection from predators.
The pump will go into the pond in a couple of weeks to activate the waterfall and so have everything ready in good time for the arrival of the next batch of returning migratory birds. That will be a day to celebrate.
Paths around the planting beds will shortly be refreshed by more wood chips and are being lined with fallen tree branches after winter. A couple of very large branches fell due to the weight of snow and ice from our massive larch tree and are being successfully repurposed. We have noticed that squirrels prefer to run along these branches rather than the woodchip paths in much the same way as they would were the branches still 50 feet off the ground.
We also keep enlarging our woodpile/dead-hedge in a back corner of the garden. Why? Read this (it is short):
Yesterday, another first-of-year returnee was this very smart Chipping Sparrow with a huge appetite. Flying back from Mexico would make anyone peckish:
Noticing Nature #27 : Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus)
Eastern chipmunks don’t truly hibernate - they enter periodic torpor. During winter, their body temperature can drop from normal (37°C) to as low as 0-5°C, and their heart rate slows from 350 beats/minute to just 4-5 beats/minute. They wake every 1-2 weeks to eat from their food stores, drink, and eliminate waste before returning to torpor.
Males emerge first - typically one or two weeks before the females. This isn’t accidental, but part of their breeding strategy. Males need time to establish territories and become active before females emerge ready to mate. In southern Quebec, this usually means about now depending on snow cover and ground temperature.
Metabolic rebound is rapid once they do get active. Within hours of emerging, their body temperature returns to normal and they begin foraging aggressively. They’ve lost roughly 25-30% of their body mass over winter and need to replenish quickly - and my, they are working hard at that! Food caching resumes immediately and they indulge in burrow maintenance by clearing tunnels and expanding chambers for the breeding season. They have large fur lined cheek pouches located on either side of their mouth which can carry up to 20% of body weight as food.
As a ground dwelling mammal they mostly live in open deciduous forests where cover is readily available in the form of stumps, logs or rocky outcrops.
During a brief estrous period, females mate with multiple males. Typically females in estrous stay within their home range and males come from outside areas to mate. On average, males travel 170 meters from their burrow to mate. There are two litters per year; one in early spring and one in midsummer.
Activity is diurnal with most during mid-morning and mid-afternoon. They are solitary and territorial, especially close to their burrow. Foraging occurs mostly along the ground, but they are good climbers. Eastern chipmunks cache food (see above) but do not have the fat stores to hibernate. Caches are marked with an olfactory label to help in relocation. This marking is dependent on the substrate and the moisture content of the seeds. Larder hoarding is more beneficial because a single, large cache is easier to defend than several small caches.
Their burrows are excavated less than one meter below the surface and have interconnected galleries up to 10 meters in length. Typically the excavate in the center of a roughly circular home range, the primary use area having a radius of 15 to 25 meters from the entrance. One room is used as a nest site and the others are used for food storage.
Diet include fruit, seeds and nuts, supplemented with insects , earthworms , slugs, bird’s eggs and fungi.
The internet is full of stories about chipmunks stealing sandwiches or ringing bells, but most of those lack proper documentation and many “chipmunk” stories are actually about groundhogs. Anecdotal social media posts, cute as they may be, don’t constitute verifiable evidence.
What we do have solid documentation for is that eastern chipmunks are remarkably adaptable, will exploit human food sources when available, and show behavioral flexibility that makes them engaging, if sometimes pesky, neighbors.
A study at the University of Michigan Biostation found chipmunk occupancy was significantly higher in areas with human structures (buildings, walkways, yards) compared to undisturbed forest patches. The chipmunks weren’t just tolerating humans—they actively exploited anthropogenic resources like bird feeders and garden seed caches, showing reduced wariness toward people.
Source: The effects of human activity on the occupancy of Tamias striatus in the University of Michigan Biostation (Academia.edu)
chipmunks near human disturbance foraged more efficiently and took more seeds, yet showed no measurable decrease in vigilance behaviors (frequency of looking up or scanning remained statistically unchanged). They’re not getting complacent—they’re just getting better at balancing boldness with caution.
Source: “Differences in Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) Behavior...” (BioOne, DOI: 10.1656/045.030.0302)
a study that analysed specimens from Chicago over 100 years found eastern chipmunks in urban environments developed noticeably larger skulls, reflecting adaptation to new food sources and competitive pressures.
Source: Phys.org, “Museum study shows human impact on chipmunks and voles in Chicago” (July 2025)
Loss of Insectivorous Birds
The populations of Swallows and Martins has dramatically “fallen of a cliff” in recent decades - primarily because of changing habitat and even more so by a huge absence of the insects these birds need to live on.
There was a fascinating article (in French) about this in La Press at Easter … I have picked out the key points below, but you can read the original at this link - or at least enjoy the photographs:
Like the six other species that grace Quebec’s skies, the Barn Swallow has experienced a major decline since the 1970s. We’re talking about an 85% drop in the population. For the Purple Martin, which primarily relies on lives in multiple artificial nest boxes, the decline reaches 97%, while for the bank swallow it’s 99%.
“A 97% population decrease”! Just think about that.
The decline of insectivorous birds, particularly those that catch their prey in flight, such as Swallows, is caused by a multitude of factors … First and foremost is the significant drop in insect populations, a situation that many have witnessed firsthand, notes Marc Bélisle, a researcher at the University of Sherbrooke who has been working on the tree swallow for several years.”
I certainly remember the impact of insects on car windows at night and having to regularly clean them off. These days that is something almost never encountered.
“Fewer insects means fewer eggs, fewer healthy chicks, and fewer fledglings. But we can only really work (here) during the short nesting season … What happens afterward, during migration or in the wintering grounds in the South, we don’t really know.” Resting sites along migratory routes are crucial for the birds’ survival. With climate change, more frequent storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes are increasing the mortality rate … Pesticides are largely responsible … but also temperature drops during late springs and the increased number of summer heat waves affect both insects and birds.
Good stuff on the chipmunk, and I like your “human authored” logo. Today we put a bunch of seed in the ground here in western Washington: spinach, snap peas, lettuce, kale, arugula. Truth be told we could have done it a bit ago but we also seem to talk about it for two weeks before we get around to it. Thanks as always for sharing your knowledge.
Always enjoy your posts! Being observant is the first step in understanding - and caring.