Manhattan Squirrels

[CMANDALA]

I noticed

[Kris]

It's curious that squirrels from different parks have different behaviors. Maybe Central Park's are wilder.

[Kris]

April 6, 2003
Hard Hats Insist There's a Squirrel Up There
By TARA BAHRAMPOUR

The 54-story glass and steel tower that Bloomberg L.P. is building on the site of the old Alexander's department store isn't due to be finished until 2005, but if the construction workers there aren't imagining things, its first occupant has already moved in.

Several months ago, a gray, bushy-tailed squirrel appeared on the eighth floor, and, enticed by the prime Midtown location and a generous supply of bagels and bananas from workers' lunches, it decided to stay. Or so some of the workers say.

Not everyone working at the site, on Lexington Avenue at 58th Street, has seen the squirrel, but everybody seems to know about it. It does not live in a cage, but ventures out from behind steel beams at the end of the workday, to collect scraps and to cement its title as the job site's unofficial mascot.

Mike Weipert, a strapping teamster in a Levi's denim jacket and a hard hat plastered with decals, was surprised that anyone outside the site had heard of it. "Boy, nothing's sacred," he said. But even with the secret out, Mr. Weipert was circumspect about the squirrel's identity, although he did refer to it as male.

"He's anonymous," Mr. Weipert said. "Nah, I'm not giving out names. Next thing you know he gets an agent, the agent gets 60 percent, he goes to a bigger site.''

Other workers offered unhelpful suggestions as to the squirrel's whereabouts: "We threw him off the roof." "A tank rolled over him." A worker whose girlfriend is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals hurriedly added that a tank did not, in fact, run over the squirrel.

Responding to the arched eyebrows of a reporter and a photographer, who did not actually see the squirrel, workers insisted that it did exist. To prove it, Dino Verdi, a foreman, radioed a worker named John, in another part of the building.

"Hey, John, did you get rid of that squirrel?'' the foreman asked.

"I still got him," John replied over the radio. "I've been trying to get him to wear safety goggles, but he refuses."

Brett Auerbach, a superintendent standing nearby, added, "Hopefully, he'll bring in a crew of squirrels, and they'll finish the job for us."

For now, the mysterious squirrel has a safe, dry pied-à-terre. But what happens when the building - to be the headquarters of the financial and media information company - is completed?

"I think he's going to do very well with Bloomberg," Mr. Auerbach said.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

Next Parks Commissioner?

[Kris]

April 7, 2003
Where the Squirrels Roam
By BRENT STAPLES

The New York gardening season gets under way in late April, after the last of the spring snowstorms. By then, plants, soil and sacks of manure cover the sidewalks in front of hardware stores and bodegas all over town. Americans do not think of gardening when they think of vertical, asphalt New York. But even people who have never touched dirt in their lives get the urge to garden after moving to a city where leafy green things are notoriously rare.

New Yorkers vent the agrarian impulse in window boxes, roof gardens and by setting out tomatoes on balconies and fire escapes. One of my neighbors in Brooklyn has cultivated a vineyard on the roof of a garage. A thousand-square-foot yard is not even a postage stamp in the Midwest. But those of us with that much earth within the city limits of New York qualify as gentleman farmers.

The row-house gardener is not an island, especially in a densely populated city like this one. The fate of my garden rests heavily on what happens in the yards of my neighbors. My roses, which need full sun, have been imperiled for years by the creeping shade of an ever-larger locust tree owned by a neighbor two doors over. Persuading her to prune the tree will require patient negotiations.

My soft, well-mulched flower beds are a magnet for the 10 or so cats that live on the adjacent properties, including a family of four feral cats that weathered the winter under a large evergreen bush next-door. Cats bypass stonier beds and make a beeline for mine. The first few weeks of the season will be spent cleaning up after my feline visitors and laying down the noxious repellent to persuade them to find cat boxes elsewhere.

My first survey of the yard revealed peanuts buried by squirrels. The peanuts mean that someone is feeding the squirrels, which means that the litters will be bigger and that more and more squirrels will descend on the gardens. A recently departed eccentric known as the Squirrel Lady brought a plague of the animals by dispensing pounds of peanuts at a time from the back porch, while the bushy-tailed beasts frolicked over her arms and shoulders. The squirrels grew steadily fatter, and the population exploded.

They intimidated the neighborhood cats and emptied the bird feeders. They buried the peanuts in window boxes and flower pots, then promptly dug them up again. They descended on fruit trees and tomato plants, taking a bite from each piece of fruit and leaving the rest to rot. Worst of all from my perspective, they ate every tulip every year. They devoured 200 bulbs in my yard alone.

The cats can be persuaded to move on. But the poor gardener does not stand a chance when someone lays out a banquet for the most ravenous beast on the urban landscape. The first gardening chore of the season: find out who is feeding the squirrels and get the culprit to stop. *BRENT STAPLES


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Fabb]

How come they intimidated the neighborhood cats ? They are adorable.
As sweet as rats, but with an even nicer tail.
I love them.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Me too. Squirrels can stand up, and they shell nuts with their little hands. They run around tree trunks and absolutely torment my dog. Plus they're smart, which is why I think they're disliked so much - very few people have achieved a squirrel-proof birdfeeder.

[Kris]

Union Square:

http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/012604/IMG_0595lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/012604/IMG_0629lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/012604/IMG_0620lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/012604/IMG_0628lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/012604/IMG_0608lg.jpg

http://www.rion.nu/v5/archive/000455.php

[ZippyTheChimp]

"It's so cold today that in park, I saw a squirrel salting his nuts."

[Gulcrapek]

Hehe.. I like very much the one holding the guy's glove. I should do that one day, provided the glove is thick enough to keep out teeth and saliva.