chipmunks

yesterday i was at my grandmas house painting her deck. she lives on about 2 acres of woodland. she put out some bird seed by the feeder and underneath it. chipmunks came out right away to start eating their dinner. i was standing still about 3 feet away from them. after about 5 minutes i got 1 foot away from them. it took a few minutes of patience for them to adjust to my closeness. after about 5 minutes of that new position i got even closer and sat on the grass. it took even more time for them to get their food because i was so close to it. pretty soon some of the chipmunks came out to get their food, but they were more cautious getting it. i stayed there for awhile and then i got right up to their food pile of seed. to add more of a presence, i held a nice big sunflower seed in my hand. it took a lot of patience this time because they were very iffy. there was one chipmunk the entire time who was the first one to have the guts to get the food. once the other chipmunks noticed that when he was eating literally inches from me that i was no threat, they all came to eat. none of them ate out of my hand though. i put the sunflower seed right in front of their noses, but they pushed it out of their face. i felt them shove it. it was so adorable. i then tried a piece of bread crust. they pushed it out of the way again. at multiple times once the chipmunks were used to me 5 of them were surrounding me. it was amazing. every time i made sudden movement like when a mosquito was bothering me they all scattered away. when i made very minimal movement the chipmunks tail would fan out then when i was still again it de-fan. i think that if i repeated those steps continuously then the chipmunks would be used to me and be relaxed more. i love studying animal behavior.

keep your eyes open,
dawn