The Great Chipmunk Challenge

This is my friend Chip. He lives in the woodpile by the side of the pin oak tree in the backyard. His cuteness knows no bounds, and I love to watch him scamper across the deck and negotiate the picket fence spikes next to the patio. He reminds me of a circus tightrope walker, except he is much more adept than even the best human with his balancing act.

Besides enjoying Chip's antics, I also like to feed the birds so I can watch the cardinals, mourning doves, finches, and occasional bluebirds that come to the bird feeder. Long ago I was told that squirrels and chipmunks don't like safflower seeds, so if you use exclusively safflower seeds in your feeder you will still attract the songbirds, but the little rodents won't eat up all the food. That advice served well for a few years, but eventually Chip must have gotten over his natural aversion to safflower because now he is stealing all the bird seed from the feeder. The other day I saw Chip sitting on the deck with his little cheeks bulging with seeds. While I watched, he spit a safflower seed out of his cheek pouch into his paws and began munching away like nobody's business. What a bandit! If that were the extent of his shenanigans, I wouldn't really mind; but now he's taken to digging into my flower planters on the deck to hide his seeds! Digging up my flowers is a definite no-no in my book (why do I have so much trouble with wildlife?) What to do, what to do? Should I move the planters to the front, even though they don't get enough sunlight there? Should I stop feeding the birds? Should I move the bird feeder out to the swingset area, hoping Chip won't find it? Should I let Gregory stalk Chip with his air-soft gun? Oh no, I can't do that! Stay tuned for the next installment of "The Great Chipmunk Challenge"!