Least Chipmunk Nibbling On Some Food In The Wasatch Mountains

Least Chipmunk nibbling on some food – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I’ve been seeing more and more Least Chipmunks while I have been up in the Wasatch Mountains looking for and photographing birds and I always try to stop for them because they are so cute. Two days ago I was driving slowly in a canyon and spotted this little cutie rolling around in leaf litter but couldn’t get a clear view of it because there were tall grasses in the way.

Once the chipmunk moved a little bit I was able to get a few images of it standing on the leaf litter nibbling on something and when it finished eating whatever the food was it moved forward and rolled around in the leaf litter but it was nearly hidden by the grasses again. The sun probably felt great to the chipmunk, I know it did to me because I saw a low of 29°F that morning when I entered the canyon, in June! I also saw frost on the ground that morning and the sun sure helped to warm me up.

When the Least Chipmunk moved out of my view I left and headed down the road to look for more birds and whatever else I could find to photograph.

I wouldn’t have seen or been able to photograph this chipmunk if I hadn’t been driving slowly and keeping a keen eye out for anything that moved, at first all I saw was its tail twitching in the grasses at the edge of the road.

I’m hoping to get back out into the field today, some kind of stomach bug hit me yesterday morning along with an early morning visual migraine and that kept me home on what turned out to be a sunny day with bluebird skies.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Least Chipmunk photos plus facts and information about this species.