The Morning Porch » chipmunks

Dawn: the soft wickering of a wood...

Dave Bonta — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:11:21 +0000

Dawn: the soft wickering of a wood thrush. Three hours later: chipmunks’ incessant hammers. A tiny blue wasp explores the sunlit railing.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:43:19 +0000

Air so clear the sunlit leaves are as green as June again. Two chipmunks in adjacent territories begin clucking, falling in and out of sync.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:57:28 +0000

While the catbird warbles jazz, a chipmunk skitters to a halt on the rock wall, sits back on its haunches and scratches its crotch.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:54:35 +0000

A fresh cement of wintry mix traversed by chipmunks, tails italic with urgency. Ice-coated branches rock in the wind—a cellophane sound.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:09:29 +0000

When the fog lifts, the sun makes its nest in the treetops. I sit with a newspaper folded on my knee, listening to a chipmunk’s metronome.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:28:56 +0000

Chipmunks cluck—a hillside of leaky faucets. Over by the powerline, a crow is venting what sounds like frustration: a hollow ach ach ach.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:26:19 +0000

As the plane fades in the distance, they return: a towhee, two lethargic vireos, a chipmunk’s water-drip-steady clucks, the garden cricket.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 22 May 2010 11:58:19 +0000

A dandelion-seed parachute drifting past the porch shudders, hit by a raindrop. The streambank grass ripples where a chipmunk runs.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:36:37 +0000

A chipmunk dashes over the snow from one tree melt-hole to another. A downy woodpecker finds a hollow limb that makes him sound enormous.

Dave Bonta — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:33 +0000

The whining scold-calls of squirrels, agitation of chipmunks, denunciation of a crow: soundtrack for a gray morning with one white hawk.