h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have a bird feeder. It looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5YMVaAi78

The feeder is squirrel-proof. 100%. It's entirely metal, so they can't chew it to pieces like the first one we had, which was plastic and lasted about 24 hours. The lid won't come open, because there's a rope running through the top that hangs off the hook on the rebar. Gravity does the work. If a heavy squirrel stands on the perch, the perch sinks down and closes access to the feeding bays, thus frustrating the squirrel. Good job.

You will notice that at the beginning of this bird documentary, there is a chipmunk at the bird feeder. Chipmunks weigh only a few ounces. They're fine with the bird feeder. They're little piggies, though - they fill up their cheek pouches and run off.

We suspect that enormous amounts of birdseed are ending up under our porch. Someday, that stuff's going to sprout and grow a mountain. Today, however, was the living end for Elektra.

She took the bird feeder off the hook to refill it. When she opened the lid, she got a shock: There was a *chipmunk* INSIDE the bird feeder.

'How did you get in there?' was what she wanted to know. The chipmunk obligingly demonstrated by exiting the way he came in: through the feeder bay. Yep, he's that small.

I yelled at the littlest chipmunk as he perched insouciantly on my porch. He looked back at me, innocently.

They're incorrigible, but they're worth it. The birds put up with them as long as we refill the feeder. And they can't reach the sunflower seeds or suet, which are hanging off the porch.

Willem complains that an inordinate number of chipmunks are called 'Chippy'. I've asked him for suggestions for better chipmunk names.

Great video - lovely to watch

I think the birds are House Sparrows

That is amazing about the cheeky chipmunk! A shock for Elektra indeed

The other name I can think of for a chipmunk is Dale, but then I did enjoy the Chip 'n' Dale Disney cartoon series in my youth!

Sasha took my suggestion...

With how may languages you know, there's got to be a cool-sounding way to say "Stripey"

OK some chipmunk names!

Tammy, Fluffcheeks, Stuffy, Syd, Vicky, Bouncy, Munkmeister, Fleety, Salvatore, Hidey, Teenietoes, Flicky, Twitchy, Iphigenia, Munkety-munk, Grainbrain...

Friar Tuck......chips and a monk?

Anyway, had a baby moorhen in the garden this morning and have just rescued a hedgehog from being played to death by the dog whilst the two nesting bats dive bombed me (mustn't like the crutches!)

Been a wild old day.

Well done DG.

I love those names! Especially Iphigenia. What a moniker for a chipmunk...longer than it is.

We've been out to the Hoggett Farm and Petting Zoo all day. Glorious weather, perfect for lazing in the pool with young Nicola Tesla Hoggett so he could tell me about his adventures in Gettysburg last weekend. (He glimpsed a ghost in the Eisenhower House.)

More videos to come, as I annoyed all the farm animals. And we saw a large wild turkey in the field behind the farm.

More chipmunk names:

Danish: Stribe (pronounced streebe)

German: Streifi (shtrifee)

English: Arthur

I'm not putting any links on, but there are loads for "naming" chipmunks along with "Alvin and the chipmunks"

I gotta PUT this link on

http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/sale/rodents/chipmunk/

Now, that's just asking for trouble. If those things get loose, you'll have an infestation. Ask the Germans about raccoons.