Birds in Fall

So many birds flying back and forth from the feeders to the trees. Finches of several kinds clinging to their thistle feeders and eating upside down, blue jays chasing everyone away from the food, fighting and scolding between themselves. All sorts of other birds from small to medium, they seem in a frenzy of eating as if they will not eat again until spring. And under it all, a chipmunk runs to collect all that falls, his cheeks full, his eyes bright. Wary, he sits up on the granite wall on the way to the feeders, his skin so thin I can see his trembling, his heart beating.