Chipmunks at Trail Wood

Trail Wood #51 Earl Plato

Writer’s note: I have watched chipmunks play at the family farm. At Marcy Woods they would run up and down the fallen trees on the forested sand dunes. I have a photo of naturalist Ernie Giles feeding a Marcy Woods chipmunk. What Ed Teale wrote in his March log is about chipmunks too but a different scenario - territory!
“ Black and white and tawny red swirl and streak above the carriage stone across the lane. Two chipmunks with territories that overlap are locked in a struggle for possession. They leap. They tumble. They roll. They spin in violent whirls of attack and counterattack. Their striped bodies clash and merge and break apart. From one side of the arena to the other the struggle follows its zigzag course. With only the briefest pauses for breath the little lightweights battle on. They reach the edge of the carriage stone and the violence of their conflict sends them tumbling off together into the weeds below.”
Note: To be continued.