What chipmunks eat.......

[CathyA]

I was watching a chipmunk out my window the other day. It was going through the grass, looking for various things to eat. I thought it was eating a long dandelion stem....when the stem started to wiggle! It was a big old earth worm! I had no idea they ate those! blech! I'm sure it enjoyed it though. It was going into its cheek-storage compartments. I was trying to see if its cheeks were wiggling
too. :~)

[janharker]

I find it odd that an earth worm would even be on a dandelion stem.

[CathyA]

It wasn't on a dandelion stem. I thought the chipmunk was eating a dandelion stem, but instead it was eating an earthworm.

[rosarugosa]

Interesting! I've only seen them eat fruit, nuts, & seeds.

[CathyA]

I'd never seen this before either. Another surprise I got once was a few years ago. It was a very cold winter. One morning I looked out my window and there was a dead, frozen male cardinal under the feeder. I was going to go out later and throw him into the woods. I looked out the window later and a squirrel was in the tree right outside my window, eating the cardinal like it was corn on the cob!

[Tweety]

My surprise wildlife meal: One very rainy day, it was really pouring, I saw a young redtailed hawk grounded and huddling under a bush in the back yard. After an hour or more the sodden hawk started jumping up and picking berries off the bush and eating them. When a hawk is hungry and miserable enough, even berries look good.

[Juds]

We have Cooper's hawks that will eat just about anything. I never know what they will have dragged up into a tree for a meal.

My favorite critters to watch are the raccoons who come to the feeding stations around 2-3 a.m. They settle down on their bellies and eat the seeds and fruits that the birds have tossed or displaced from the feeders. Sometimes they will bring along a crayfish from the creek and eat that, too.

[Wildflower]

When we were in Estes Park, Colorado we had a great time watching the many chipmunks. We saw one enjoying some Peanut M&Ms that someone had spilled on the ground. I took a picture of him as he was about to pop a big blue one in his mouth. :D He thoroughly enjoyed them too, but I'm not so sure it was "good" for him, as far as the chocolate part goes. I wondered if he didn't suffer a tummyache later. :sick:

[Kestrel]

Several years ago, during a hot California summer, we were driving down the Southern California coast and stopped at an ocean overlook. There were either chimpmunks or golden mantled squirrels (don't remember which) running all over the place, and we had nothing to feed them. BUT, we had an empty Pepsi cup with ice in it, so ... we gave them some ice. And they loved it! They would take some licks, run off, come back and lick some more ... etc. So we gave them all of our ice and went on our way. Shortly after that we were RVing and once again, chipmunks/squirrels were all over the campground, and we gave them ice, with the same results. Of course, on the CA coast, there isn't a lot of water (not counting the ocean, of course), and it's hot and dry, so that could be why they were excited about the ice, but in the campground there were faucets (some that dripped) so one would think they could get water when they needed it.

[CathyA]

Good stories! :)