Least Chipmunk on a lichen-covered post, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, UtahLeast Chipmunk on a lichen-covered post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Least Chipmunks are hibernating at this time of the year but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about these tiny chippies that I usually photograph high in the Wasatch Mountains during the warmer months of the year. I can almost picture them curled up in their burrows with a thick white layer of snow on the ground over their heads.

The Least Chipmunks that I find in the high mountain canyons amuse and delight me as they go about their lives while I photograph them. They move quickly and are sure-footed. In early spring sometimes their calls trick me into momentarily thinking I am hearing a bird but once I realize that they are chippies I quickly look around for them. I’m a passionate bird photographer but I don’t pass up many opportunities to take images of these diminutive, striped fur balls.

I photographed this Least Chipmunk last summer high up in a mountain canyon where it appeared to be sniffing the lichens that covered the top of a wooden fence post. After I took this image I researched whether lichens have scents and I found out that some smell like fish and some are even used to make perfumes. So perhaps it was smelling the lichen. The chipmunk didn’t stay on the fence post long because a pickup rattled past which caused the chippy to take cover in the sagebrush below the post.

Life is good.

Mia

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