A chipmunk monkeying around

As mentioned earlier this week, the chipmunk has figured out how to get into our bird feeder.  Here he is tucking in.

The bird feeder is cleverly designed so that squirrels can't get into it - the cage on the outside is pulled down by their weight and blocks access to the delicious sunflower seeds within.  But chippy here is too light to pull the cage down so he can gorge to his heart's content.  And he has no scruples about it, as you can see.

This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for his carrying capacity.  He may be only a little larger than a sparrow, but he has these nifty cheek pouches which he can stuff before carrying everything back to his den.  It's a little hard to see but they're already filling up in picture above.  For a better illustration, here's some snaps from a couple of weeks back.  First, he finds an almond and picks it up.

He could grab it in his teeth now and scurry off like the squirrels do, but no.  A few seconds of jostling and hey presto it's in his cheek pouch.

Nevermind that he looks like he's got a massive goitre, he can in principle fit one nut in either cheek and one in his teeth, which is more than the squirrels can and they're about ten times his size!

As you can imagine that the seed in the bird feeder has disappeared pretty quickly since he figured it out.

I'm not sure what to do, the difficulty is that he still looks so darned cute even when he's pilfering the seed from the birds.  He runs away if I open the door but I've got better things to do than sit around guarding the bird feeder.  I could perhaps mix pepper in with the seed, but that sounds like it might hurt him.  So maybe the birds and I will just have to live with him and his antics.

I'll keep you posted.