Where were all these chipmunks when we were growing up?

Linda suggested that the chipmunks are especially plentiful this year because last year the oaks produced a bumper crop of acorns. Whatever the reason the little guys are seemingly everywhere. Each wood pile has one, there's one under the front steps, and there's one using each downspout as a runway to the roof. Yet I don't remember ever seeing a chipmunk as a kid.

Surely Jippon would have quickly dispatched any that came within reach; but Jippon was almost always tied up to his wire run in the back yard. Why weren't there any at the front of the house where he couldn't get at them?

Meanwhile the flock of geese is finally getting around to harvesting the seed heads of the tall grass down toward the sugar maple. It looks like there are three adults and about ten youngsters. We haven't seen geese all that much this year. Their nests must have been carefully hidden away from the pond.