The Short End of the Stick

There's no doubt that squirrels get the short end of the stick. And New York City squirrels live, not in a friendly forest full of food, but in parks where the food supply can be scarce. Enter people. I was approached the other day by a mocking guy who was berating me for feeding the squirrels. Why? Because they're nasty creatures who bite little children! Because I can't possibly make a difference in their lives! He asks: do you think you can save every squirrel in the city? He says this as he's standing there holding a plump, perfectly groomed little pooch,who is obviously well cared for. What gets me is that people who obviously love and care for their pets or their children, just can't make the connection. But that's just the way I see it.

Squirrels of Winter

Squirrels are forced to live in a hole in a tree, forced to contend with the elements. When it storms, when it rains, when it snows, they're out there taking it. There are no cozy jackets and booties for them!

On top of all that, there are predators out there waiting to kill them, and the squirrels know it. I went out yesterday and threw some nuts on the ground, and as squirrels scurried to get the nuts, there was a flash of wing: a large red-tailed hawk swooped down, not for a nut, but for a squirrel! I threw some peanuts at him and he took off as if they were bullets! Then he went back to his perch on a tree to play the long game, the waiting game. He looked pretty scrawny, like he needed a good meal. I wish we could teach them to eat nuts.

The Hunger Games

Dog Friendly?

I promise you, this is no dog friendly area! This is where the squirrels congregate and get fed. And it only means that the squirrels get indigestion and we squirrel feeders get to step in it -- all squishy and smelly -- every so often. So why put the sign there? It seems like someone has a slightly sadistic sense of humor. After months of wondering if someone was poisoning the squirrels, all of a sudden there are squirrels galore, squirrels, squirrels everywhere, and you know it's eatin' season. They seemed to pull a disappearing act during the long, hot summer and well into the fall, but once the November winds began to blow they began coming out of the woodwork. They need those calories to generate heat, so they just gotta eat!


The Squirrels and the Honey Locust
This fall saw the glory days of the Honey Locust. There's never been a season quite like this  -- their long brown pods were all over the streets of Manhattan.

And this was a good thing for the squirrels because it turns out that they eat them! Who knew? Whether done out of desperation or because they taste good, the pod seeds make a nice supplement to the occasional acorns that fall from the few oak trees around here.

Tangled Up in Brown

The Squirrel and the Hawk
Okay, hawks have to eat too. And this particular red-tailed hawk was playing a waiting game with a local squirrel who was giving it a loud challenge.  Some squirrels do this for some strange reason, while the rest either freeze or run away. I never fail to be impressed when I see that combination of foolhardiness and courage on display. It does deter the hawks for a while. Normally when a hawk call goes out, the squirrels go into what I call "tableau mode" -- frozen in place -- then most recover and run for cover, But there are always a few that stand their ground and challenge a creature that is twice their size with deadly talons.

It was already getting late when I came upon this standoff going on between a squirrel and a hungry hawk.



Big Red-tailed Hawk

I knew it could be a long game, so I rushed home to get my camera. By the time I got back it was dark enough to cause my automatic flash to fire, and that was enough to send the hawk flying! So I only got a couple of pics of the big bird as it made its exit.

Squirrel won this round!

 You can see that the brave squirrel is totally intact.


Remains of the Day

And the hunger games continue: another was not so lucky.

Life of a Squirrel
Winter is a sad season for squirrels. They don't have much of a life, and the cold weather is very hard on them. You see open red wounds on the backs and legs of some of them. We haven't had much snow this year, but we did  have some very cold days when the polar vortex got stuck here for a while. I can only imagine what it would be like with day after day, week after week, months of relentless, bone chilling cold, with barely a reprieve.


What's a squirrel worth? Nothing.

The other day I heard a baby crying, This was not a mating cry,  it was a baby's cry. He was sitting up in a tree all alone, cold and hungry, bemoaning his fate. A baby squirrel in distress, and not just any baby, but a very beautiful one -- one of the brownies with the gorgeous red-gold tails.

I threw some peanuts on the ground and he finally came down from his solitary perch. It just about broke my heart to hear him cry as if inconsolable, even while he was eating. I tossed him some special nuts -- walnuts, cashews and pecans. I left lots of food, it was all I could do to try to soothe the little guy. 


At this age he's still not resigned to the life of a squirrel, and he's making a fuss about it. I wanted to scoop him up and bring him home with me to get warm and comfy -- like all those little pooches you see walking around in their warm little jackets and booties. 


But he's a wild thing, and would never have let me do that.

Orange And the New Black

Last week the beautiful Orange Queen returned.

This week I'm overjoyed to have Black back!

That is, a somewhat modified Black -- a new Black if you will.  That characteristic "V" on her back, by which I knew her, has disappeared.  But just as squirrel tails are always changing colors, their fur can change too. Squirrel "looks" go in and out of fashion, being as changeable as the weather and the seasons.

But there's so much that's the same -- her familiarity with me for one thing, and the way she races over when I enter the park, and then follows me around until I leave, and the way she gets so excited that she practically dances around me. That's how I know her.

Do you really have to go now?

Her boundless energy, her intense personality, her antics -- all these characteristics are still there in the new Black.


Black Being Black


I smell peanuts.

Casing the joint.

In goes the squirrel...

Out come the goods...



All that hard work... for peanuts!

So they've come back, but where have they been? Squirrels don't hibernate in winter, but I'm wondering if they've been going into some sort of semi-hibernation state during the hot days of summer? Maybe those "summer vacations" will become one of the ways that squirrels adapt to climate change. I actually think they deal with the cold better than with the hot weather. They put on those heavy winter coats and the little ear muffs and mittens when the cold arrives, but they have no similar defenses against the heat, and are stuck in their fur coats, which, while not as heavy as their winter coats, still have to feel pretty hot.


She's back!!!

I'm back...




The beautiful Orange Queen has returned!

After being gone for over a week, she sauntered over as if just back from summer vacation. But where had she been? And why was she gone for so long? Oh, the never-ending mystery of squirrels! She seems a bit worse for the wear, maybe a little disoriented. Like, how did I get back in THIS world?

I've had several people tell me that the squirrels in Peter Cooper and Stuyvesant Town seem confused and disoriented. I'm wondering if it could be due to the heat and possibly dehydration.  While most birds and carnivorous animals get their water from food, vegan squirrels don't get it from peanuts, so I've been giving them grapes and small chunks of fresh coconut, which they seem to like.



Coconut treat



Coconut - ice cream for squirrels?

summer flowers

daisies

And then there were none?

It seems like squirrels have been disappearing. Just looking back at my  mid-July post, when there were so many around, it's now an empty landscape by comparison. I can't figure out what's going on. They made it through the harsh winter (with my help, I like to think), and now that it's finally nice weather, there are not many around to enjoy it.

The Other Mother

This is the "other mother" who has now also disappeared in addition to the orange mother. She's the other squirrel that I'd grown fond of over the winter. She was pregnant or nursing at the time, and would go crazy if she missed me for a day and missed a meal. She was a little terror. She'd tear holes in my bags until I taught her not to.  And she'd be constantly grabbing nuts and burying them for later. She was very intelligent, and also very aggressive, but she paid attention and learned, and we bonded. I'm always especially aware of the needs of mothers and the mother squirrels seem to respond to that with appreciation.


But now she hasn't shown up for a couple of days, and I'm saddened by the thought that something has happened to her. First I lost the orange queen and now the black queen?

There have been rumors of squirrels being poisoned. At first I rejected the idea because all "my" squirrels were doing well. But I was told that someone had actually brought a few dead squirrels to a vet and had them autopsied, and that poison was found. 
I tend not to think management would have anything to do with disappearing squirrels, and I've spoken to a few residents who agree, saying that they are quite transparent about what goes on around there. That's good to know. But it's scary to think that there might actually be residents who would poison the little creatures. There are quite a few people around here who dislike the squirrels, and do not like to see anyone feeding them. But would they go so far as to hurt squirrels? I find that hard to believe. And yet, in the space of two weeks it seems that I've lost two of my main squirrels!  A lot of the other squirrels seem to have gone missing as well.

Gone Squirrel

I can't believe she's gone! She just wasn't there one day. Or the next day, or the next. I was about to celebrate her here on the blog as the Queen of the Oranges. This is the latest picture of her, where her tail was already changing from its silvery beauty into a more orangey color. But the last time I saw her (which I didn't have a chance to capture as I didn't have my camera), it was a truly bright orange -- proof positive that she was the progenitor of the resurgence of orange-tailed squirrels we've been blessed with this year.

Mother

Yes, this is the mother of all orange squirrels, I'm pretty sure of it. And now she's gone!
What could have happened to her? Well I've been extremely depressed by the thought that I may have killed her. The last time I saw her I threw a peanut at her and it hit her on the head. Right after that she disappeared up a tree. How hard could I have hit her? Well hard enough for me to be concerned enough to go looking for her the next day. And I did not find her.

Ever since I've known this squirrel, she's been sitting out there like a little lawn decoration, awaiting my arrival (I liked to think). So not seeing her there was a bad sign.

A friend told me that there was little chance that I had hurt her, as a peanut is very light. It's not like being hit with a rock! And I'm imagining that squirrels through the ages have probably been hit by nuts falling from trees. So my friend is probably right. But is it just a coincidence that she disappeared right after that? 

Normally I remain detached from the ups and downs of squirrels. I'm just there to feed them, mainly during the hard days of winter when there's no other food to be found. But I have to admit that this one was different. I had become attached to her and actually became very depressed when she didn't show up, especially when I might have had something to do with it. :(

I'm still hoping that one of these days I'll go out to the park and she'll be there, waiting for me.

Summer Day

Mid-July...

 Pretty Babies

Where the Grass is Always Greener

under 'the orange tree' is where it's at

May Day

Happy May Day, squirrel fans!

Earth Day

A beautiful day

Easter Bunnies

Cherry Trees in bloom!

Southern Squirrel

Today's squirrel is a Southern cousin -- this darling mama Fox squirrel from South Carolina.

Spring Before the Storm

It was a gorgeous blue-sky day today with a hint of spring in the air.

The Japanese Cherry trees are getting ready to bloom.

Japanese Cherry Trees

I'm happy to report that all my squirrels survived the winter and are doing well. They were enjoying the nice weather today, clueless about the storm that's about to descend on them tomorrow.

Squirrel Appreciation Day

Squirrel Appreciation Day is a holiday which is celebrated on January 21st every year to celebrate and honor squirrels and the contribution they make to the environment. On this day, people are encouraged to head out into the woods or at least, to their local park to look for their favorite types of squirrels and to leave nuts and seeds ...

A peanut will do...

Respite

50 degrees and sunny! It sure feels good! I expected to see all the squirrels out prancing around the green in the fine weather! Instead, there was barely a squirrel in sight. So what's the story? Since it's not so cold they don't need as much food to produce heat? Beaten down and just wanting a long winter's nap? Poor little things.

Tomorrow Will Be Better

Two very cold days with temperatures in the low 20s are coming to an end. Tomorrow the temperatures will rise to decent numbers. I know this, but they don't. For all they know, they could be in for another horrifying two weeks like the ones they just went through. Can they even remember that? Or can they project into the future? I don't know, maybe they only live day-to-day, but I think they must have some kind of memory. At any rate, they are in for a nice surprise tomorrow when things warm  up.


I've been amazed at their capacity to sustain cold temperatures, They must have some "magic potion". It turns out that their cousins the ground squirrels, and some other rodents that hibernate, do have some "magical" ability to adjust their body temperatures to the cold. It's a specialized protein called TRPM8 that helps them resist the cold. Now I know our tree squirrels don't have that, but they must have something similar going on that helps them get through this crazy cold weather.  As for me, I do my part by supplying the food. Food = energy = heat.

Dirty Old Town

At first fall it's lovely...

But it soon starts to look like this...

Last but not least

Fat Boy made his appearance today!

Not the least of them...

The Bomb Cyclone

Emergency Alert
How to prepare now:
Stay indoors during the storm. Prolonged exposure to cold can cause hypothermia.


But what about the squirrels?