While enjoying all the nesting around the bird store, I completely forgot about the mammal uprising that we have in the spring. Squirrels have taken up residence in an outdoor storage area we affectionately refer to as the crib (or more to the point "Denny's Crib" because he's my employee who keeps it organized). On occasion other critters move in like mice and rats.

Today brought a cute creature who vexes me in warmer months: the chipmunk.

This little guy fell down into some PVC tubes we use for pole storage. As I leaned over to get a photo he tried in vain to hide himself in the bottom of the tube. It's been so busy at the store that we've sold so many poles that the normally full tubes are empty. This little guy presumably went in looking for seed and couldn't quite jump out. He now has a new home far away from the store (don't worry when I dropped him off in his new location I gave him a good scoop of seed to get him started).

Alas, there are more chipmunks. This is a guy hiding in our drain pipe outside the store who keeps trying to get in whenever he hears the back door open.

They wait for deliveries when we have our doors open and make a break for the inside of the store. Some people think that it's got to be cute and great for business to have a little chippy in the store, however, they are a tad destructive on the inventory. They get quite brazen once they figure out how slow we humans are in comparison to them. Some days one will leisurely eat peanuts out in the open while we help customers. Again, if that was all they did I could see putting up with that, but they rip open bags of seed and aren't nearly as litter trained as a rabbit. Plus the way they zip around really startles the cookies out of you.