The Morning Porch » chipmunks

Chipmunks chase in the driveway. A...

Dave Bonta — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:33:40 +0000

Chipmunks chase in the driveway. A hummingbird hovers beside the porch, sipping rainwater from a spiderweb in the tall weeds.

Dave Bonta — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:17:03 +0000

Watched by a chipmunk at the end of the stone wall, I hold a mouthful of coffee in my cheeks, do my best to look as if I know how to live.

Dave Bonta — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:42:03 +0000

Rain has erased the last patches of snow. The lilac bush gives birth to a cardinal, a wren, four white-crowned sparrows and a chipmunk.

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.