Desolation Row

Three Days of Hell

 

Day 1 - Big Badfoot and Little Badfoot

Things were pretty desolate. I saw a few squirrels at the orange tree (one of the babies and maybe ET), but not a single squirrel by the fountain or beyond. Over in GM's (Gray Momma's) area more came out after a while. Badfoot came down and was trying to stand up in the snow while she ate but she kept trying to keep herself from from falling over. Her foot was bright red and inflamed. She may be Gray Momma but it's hard to tell, as I lost track of Gray Momma since the squirrels put on their heavy coats in early December. I have been watching her for a while. Her left rear foot is huge and swollen, probably from an infection. 

 

Two young squirrels were also in trouble: a gray one on one side of the green and a black one on the other side. The gray one was trying to stand upright and kept falling over to the side due to a leg or foot problem. The black one was shivering and shaking,  had lost some of his fur, and looked totally miserable. He came down from the tree late, after I'd run out of nuts. I had to search through my bags to find a couple more peanuts, and also gave him the last of the pistachios and a cheese cracker. He was sitting up on a branch drying out in the sun when I left. I wondered if I'd ever see him again. I heard more storms were on the way. Oh no! The squirrels couldn't take any more.

 

 

Day 2 - Hawk!

It was another sad day. Only a few squirrels came out by GM's tree. The ones that did were the walking wounded. Two of them were the badfoots - Big Badfoot and Little Badfoot. I was feeding both after the others had already gone up when suddenly a huge hawk flew down right in front of me and tried to grab Little Badfoot! It failed. I started yelling at it and it flew away. But then it came back and chased Little Badfoot all the way over to the next tree. I saw that LB made it safely up and inside the tree, after which the hawk stationed itself on a branch and proceeded to wait patiently.

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

Other people were standing around watching and laughing, enjoying the show. They didn't seem to notice the suffering of the squirrels.  A man who was walking two small dogs picked them both up when he walked past the hawk's tree. The hawk was huge, bigger than the dogs, but I still think it may be a juvenile because of its clumsy attempts to catch the squirrel. I decided it was time to stop the feeding.

Blood on the Tracks

I then went over to the tree where I'd seen the little black squirrel yesterday. There was no sign of him, but I saw red stuff on the snow. I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't blood.

Just heard the weather report and it's going to be really cold tonight with high winds and a wind chill that makes it even colder. Lots of sun tomorrow but still very cold, and then another storm coming through with even more snow.
 
Day 3 - Hell Freezes Over

 

More of the same today. When I got there only a single squirrel was out: Big Badfoot. She was in the sun by GM's tree trying to eat something that looked like seeds-- maybe some of the dried corn I'd spilled yesterday. I fed her some nuts then walked around to the other end of the green where I fed a small group that came out. All of a sudden they all froze. I couldn't see a thing but decided to cut the feeding short. I circled the green back towards GM's tree and on the way encountered Little Badfoot! I stopped to feed him and all of a sudden he started making clucking noises and ran off. I looked up and discovered Mr. Hawk sitting in the same tree as yesterday!

Hell is an injured, cold, hungry squirrel 
with a hawk sitting above, waiting to pounce.

By this time squirrels all over the place were crying out from the trees. I wondered if that was so smart, since it draws attention to them, but that's what they do. And it was amazing how the squirrels all way over on the other side of the green had sensed the hawk earlier. They have a very impressive early warning surveillance system that we don't quite understand.

Old Man Winter is still around.

 

Dead of Winter

Not a lot to report these days. Yesterday a black squirrel fell from a tree and was found dead this morning. It may have broken its leg and been unable to climb back up, so it froze to death during the night.

Aside from that most of the squirrels are doing fine so far. A bunch died - no doubt the weakest among them - during the first onslaught of winter, but since then the rest have been hardy enough to make it through.

But we dread the month of February as being the worst of all months, because the squirrels are weakened by now and less able to withstand winter's rigors.

And February is hell for squirrels. We're  remembering last year's ice storm when many squirrels, already weakened by the long winter,  just needed some warm weather to regain their strength, and instead they got an ice storm. It was devastating,

But she's not there

So until we make it through the month of February we're holding our breath.



Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day

Squirrels are celebrated for their amazing feats.

Honoring Amazing Squirrels on Their Day - ABC News http://abcn.ws/1atqAtW (via @ABC)



I know I can do this if I put my mind to it

It's raining bats

Heat wave in Australia causes thousands of dead bats to fall from the sky

An estimated 100,000 cooked bats have fallen from the sky in southern Queensland, Australia.


www.mirror.co.uk

While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever. Colonies of dead bats have been falling from the sky in the recent Australian heat wave, where temperatures have reached 122 degrees Fahrenheit. 



[ABC news]

Hundreds of bats also lie dead in trees and bushes and are being eaten by maggots.

(orange.co.uk)

A rescued bat recovers at the RSPCA centre [ABC news]
 



Heat-stressed baby Flying Foxes are lined up ready to feed at the
Australia Bat Clinic near the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Meanwhile in Toronto Canada, bats are freezing:
35 big brown bats were rescued and are in care! It was -26 with the wind chill. The bats were found exposed and freezing outside a mall.


(Toronto Wildlife Center)
  

All those deniosaurs who are declaring global warming to be null and void
need to understand the difference between weather and climate - weather is what's happening at the moment, while climate refers to longterm conditions.

Weather extremes - both hot and cold - can be the result of global warming - which some argue is not the best term to describe what is happening to the earth right now, and that climate change or climate chaos would better describe the phenomenon.

However, global warming does bear some relationship to what is occurring, which is warmer oceans and warmer atmosphere (clouds).  At the heart of climate change there exists greater amounts of warm, moist air.

With respect to the Polar Vortex which just took the East Coast by storm (pardon the pun), some think that the arctic air got pushed further southward due to the thinning of arctic ice sheets around the North Pole, which has created a sort of  vacuum that made it more likely for this blast of cold air to go further south over parts of Canada and the US than it normally would.

But the predominant trend of Climate Change is warming, the Polar Vortex is a temporary phenomenon and we'll soon be returning to warmer than normal
winter temperatures.

As we can see, either condition - extreme cold or extreme heat - can be disastrous for our precious wildlife.





Happy New Year 2014

From All the Squirrels of Peter Cooper Village
Thank you for your kindnesses throughout the year
May we all be safe and healthy in the coming year!  

 

 

 

 Don't see the squirrels? That's because squirrels don't go out at night, DUH!

More Travels with CharMar

CharMar is what we'd call a world squirrel traveler. She has a great love for squirrels and visits them in many places, observing them and capturing them with her camera.

Here she is making a friend at the Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge in Orlando, Florida.

CharMar meets Angel

What's this?

The most happy fella!

 

Visit CharMar's Squirrel Gallery:

 

http://www.pbase.com/scarlett67

 

Saying Goodbye

We said goodbye to a friend yesterday. 

 

Silverback

He was a big black squirrel called Silverback because he had silver threads in that black coat.

CUTE, CUTER, CUTEST

We've had arguments about this: like hey, you can't say this is the cutest squirrel ever.
Maybe the cutest ever in Canada, or maybe the cutest ever on nutsaboutsqirrels.com?  Okay, we give up. But still... just sayin'...


photo courtesy of http://nutsaboutsquirrels.com

 

Then again, this one is... the cutest squirrel ever in Texas maybe?

Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/SquirrelBeebz

 But wait... maybe this is squirrel is cuter!

 

I'm no squirrel but some people actually think I'm cute.

photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/MrRat395

You be the Judge!  

Adventures of CharMar: The Playground Squirrels

CharMar goes off the beaten path, maps out new territory

CharMar in Heartwell Park, Long Beach CA

Welcome to New York!

Our friend CharMar from California charmed all the New York squirrels on her visit here. Her whirlwind tour took her through PCV, USP and WSP as well as Stuyvesant Town and Stuyvesant Square Park, where the squirrels gave her warm welcomes.




the playground

 

While she reported that the USP and WSP squirrels were exceedingly effusive, we were pleased to hear that PCV squirrels were a picture of decorum, showing behavior befitting a state visit from a world squirrel traveler.

The charming CharMar, who is part of the squirrel community on Twitter, has acquired a great deal of knowledge about squirrels from many different places. You can interact with her on Twitter (but only if you're a squirrel).

We're happy to present these reports of her recent visit to NYC. Here's a sampling from her visit to Peter Cooper Village. She made use of our self-guided tour of PCV, but at one point she went astray and ended up discovering new territory: the playground! We have since revised the tour and added a path to the playground: http://thenewyorksquirrel.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-squirrels-tour-of-pcv.html

Adventures of CharMar: Stuyvesant Square Park

CharMar takes the New York squirrel world by storm. She makes an unscheduled stop along the way at this pretty little park, the historic Stuyvesant Square Park, where she receives a warm welcome.

 

Adventures of CharMar: Union Square Park

Living the Good Life at Union Square Park

 

USP squirrels are no doubt spoiled by all the attention they receive!

 

 

Adventures of CharMar: Washington Square Park

These guys have so much personality! What is it about NYC squirrels??

I had read that at least 30 squirrels lived at Washington Square Park... wow, they weren't kidding!

If you feed just one and another one sees it, they all come running (that's everywhere) but these guys were coming right up to me me five at a time and here, that doesn't happen! I went to the park once where four of them came running towards me like "CHARRRRGE! Lunch truck is here!" But once they got remotely close, only one came up to me and the rest scattered and came back once the alpha girl or boy ran off with its nut.

 

They're everywhere but Nature didn't put them there

@Ratatosk4 <== #squirreltax origin? RT @v_shakthi: The Fascinating Story of Why U.S. Parks Are Full of Squirrels http://t.co/YE4vHh6ooq
— Kevin Panthera (@BornToRoar) December 9, 2013

News from the Twitterverse

CharMar, our friend on Twitter who came in from the West Coast for the day, just tweeted that she had taken our self-guided tour of PCV and sent us these pictures. More on the way!

 

 

We're pretty sure this cute little guy is the "brindle" baby that disappeared a while ago. If so, we're glad to know that he may have just moved to a new location. 

 

A squirrel's tour of PCV

We'd like to extend a warm welcome to all squirrel travelers and we're happy to present this self-guided tour for those interested in visiting the squirrels of Peter Cooper Village.




Your tour starts at the Main Gate at First Avenue and E. 22nd St.

Hop through the gate, pass by the squirrel-friendly guard house, and you will be facing east on Peter Cooper Road. Follow the path along the road and at the first crossroads you have a choice to bear left or right.  If you're hungry for a snack you can make a left and scoot over to the Acorn Palace which is near 23rd St. (though chances are there's nothing left by now... acorns go fast in the fall).

Otherwise stay to the right and follow Peter Cooper Road to the fountain.

 
 

Either path will lead  to the fountain (which can barely be called a fountain these days).

The Fountain



 There are quite a few black squirrels around the fountain, you may be lucky to meet Red Momma, who lives in a tree by the fountain and is usually somewhere around. 

Red Momma

The Purple Tree

Look for the family of purplish black squirrels that lived in the Purple Tree by the fountain last summer but seem to have scattered now. A few may still be around.

  

At the fountain you have a choice:
Continue to the right along Peter Cooper Road to the Playground Area.
Or alternatively,
Continue to the left along the path that leads from the fountain to the Orange Tree.


Path to the Orange Tree

The Orange Tree

There are actually two trees that the squirrels run back and forth between.

The Orange Tree is so-named because of several generations of orange squirrels that inhabited it a while ago. These are gray squirrels that have a lot of orange coloring and brilliant orange tails. They are somewhat similar in coloring to calico cats.

 

Here you will no doubt meet ET (be prepared: she will probably  pounce). Her four kids, three red-brown and one gray, should also be around.

ET

There is also a large purple-black squirrel that lives around here and doesn't seem to mind tangling with  ET. And just beyond to the left and close 23rd Street, there's a family of  young black squirrels.





The Cherry Orchard
Either path leads to the Cherry Orchard, where on a nice day, all these squirrels can be found playing.

Exit

 Just beyond the cherry trees, rejoin Peter Cooper Road and follow it to the end. Turn right just before the exit, and you will be facing the flagpole and Gray Mama's tree.







Gray Momma's Tree

Turn right here

Gray Momma's Tree




You will probably find Gray Momma in her garden 

You can usually see squirrels engaged in one of their favorite pastimes: digging. If you didn't bring your own peanuts, and feel the need for a snack, this may be a good place to find one. There are plenty of peanuts to be found in that good earth!

 

The squirrels are mostly gray here, but if you walk to the other side of the green that abuts the garden you will find a colony of black squirrels near 22nd Street.

 Although our tour ends here, we encourage you to scamper across 22nd St (be quick and be nimble!) and go into Stuyvesant Town, which also has many black squirrels.

As far as we know PCV/Stuytown is the place to find black squirrels in New York City.

 Stuytown extends all the way down to 14th Street, a major crosstown street. From there if you have the time, you might want to cross 14th and head a few blocks down Avenue A, to Tompkins Square Park in the historic East Village. Plenty of lovely gray squirrels there, as well as many other sights.