An introduction to Speedy and Sparky.

I was born and raised in a city and I have lived in cities all my life so coming to Connecticut has been a bit of a shock. One thing about being raised in a city is, excluding pigeons, drunks and other humans, there is very little wildlife. I did see a rabbit in Chicago once and a few rats and mice in the London Underground but pretty much that was it.

So now we live in a much more rural environment. For instance our house has a grass bank which slopes gently down to a small road about 30 yards away. From our large kitchen window you can sit and watch the trees and the occasional car. It’s a pretty peaceful scene really. Then one Saturday morning in early April, while we sat eating breakfast by the window, we were intrigued to see a small critter poking a cute reddish brown head out of a hole. We watched him for a while and then he darted away and disappeared but next day he was back again. As he clearly lived nearby I decided he needed a name and after much discussion we deemed that ‘Sparky’ seemed to be appropriate. A couple of weekends later we noticed there were actually two of the critters living in separate holes. Damn! We had to find another name. Do you know how hard it is to name a critter (that’s why the bat is called bat-e but that’s a different story)? After a lot of debate we plumped for Speedy.

Turns out that Speedy and Sparky are Eastern Chipmunks or Tamias Striatus. Throughout the summer months they have been pretty easy to spot stood, sometimes for minutes without moving, on their hind legs. Occasionally dashing at speed through the grass or crouching tremulously by their burrow entrances. They’ve grown a little and their colours have deepened to a lovely reddish brown. It took a while to get that knack of locating them but on Saturdays after the football season had ended, it was a very pleasant way to spend the breakfast half hour.

Speedy is by the tree, Sparky is to the right

I never thought I’d find watching small rodents so interesting but then maybe I’d never had to watch Connecticut local news before. Trust me after watching channel 8 News, chipmunks are the height of excitement.



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Bazza