Cheeky pouches

BritishColumbia wonderfully describes the process a chipmunk uses when it finds food. They write, "When preparing food for storage, the chipmunk holds fruit and seeds in its dexterous front paws, and with specialized incisors, which are especially long and directed forward, it removes seeds from pods. Then it uses its tongue to shift them backwards and stuff them between its teeth and the extensible skin in the cheek area, where they are held while the animal collects more food. The capacity of these cheek pouches increases with maturity. When the cheek pouches become full, the chipmunk deposits the seeds in its nest or buries them in shallow holes that it digs in the ground and then covers with earth, leaves, and other litter."

My chippies rarely take the peanuts from the shells when packing their cheek pouches.

Selecting a peanut

To the pantry!

Errands and cleaning and stocking our own pantry to prepare for the special folks from Sweden arriving mid week. Commenting will probably suffer until the beginning of April, sorry.