Burrow Fever

This shelter-in-burrow business is really putting a crimp in my usual adventures. There is only so much de-cluttering and tidying up one can do. I even tried counting all the seeds in the storage units. I lost count after ten thousand. The family has over a year’s supply of food. Mom, our human caretaker, mentioned she is taking walks at different places (while practicing social distancing.) I hopped on the internet to look up places to take the family. I found the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary run by Massachusetts Audubon. These humans have such quaint notions – a “wildlife sanctuary” – we critters have been living a civilized life for hundreds of years.

We hitched a ride with Mom. When we got there, I grabbed a trail map. There was something called the “Rockery” which got the kids all excited. I had never heard the term before. It is some fancy Victorian word for a rock garden. A rockery is no ordinary “rock garden.” It is a gargantuan man-made pile of rocks with tunnels, rustic stairs and lookout area on the top. Originally it would have been planted with flowering vines and plants, shrubs and trees. Today it is part of the forest. The kids went crazy playing tag and hide & seek. They climbed over the rocks with reckless abandon. I was quite proud of their climbing skills but pretended to be terrified after I saw the look on the wife’s face and the scolding she gave the kids.

At the Woodpile we have the humans well trained to feed us chipmunks, squirrels and birds. I was a bit surprised and annoyed to discover the humans visiting the sanctuary paid absolutely no attention to us four pawed furry critters. Instead they brought huge bags of sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts for the birds. Yes, you heard me right, they were feeding the birds. The birds have the humans so well trained that the humans would put out their hands full of seed and the birds would land on their hands to select the best seeds and nuts. The local four pawed critters were stuck with the few scraps that inadvertently fell to the ground.

Last year, I introduced you to Bushy’s teenage daughter Georgina or “Red” to her friends. She is one that likes to dye her fur red. Well, we ran into her at the sanctuary. Turns our she is interning there as part of an environmental science program. She is learning about how to reduce the negative impacts humans are having on the natural world.

The kids voted this the best playground ever

There were tunnels to explore for pirate treasure …

Rustics stair to follow …

Uncharted paths to wander …

Strange rocks from Mars (at least according to the kids)

Georgina was surprised to see us.

She asked us to take a couple of pictures for her facebook page

I asked were all the chipmunks lived at the sanctuary. Apparently there is just one ‘munk known as the hermit. For a hermit he turned out to be a talkative fellow. Apparently we are the first chipmunk visitors he has seen in a year.

The birds at the sanctuary live a life of luxury and opulence. The humans hand feed them.

It is the middle of the afternoon and this pair of Canadian geese are taking a nap.

We were walking along the boardwalk when I saw some dropped peanuts ahead. I was about to run ahead to get the family a snack when this Redwing blackbird started squawking at me.

 

The Redwing blackbird then swooped down gobbled up all the peanuts! Hey, I saw them first!

I complained to the local constable that I had been robbed "butt" all he did was made a rude gesture.

Now I understand why it is called a “wildlife” sanctuary, the residents have absolutely no manners!