White Ears and Fur Coats

Well, I've been able to feed "wild" squirrels in yet another city... Last time it was in Washington D.C., as I was walking away from Lincoln's memorial toward the White House, just having passed the reflection pool.

This time I was in Union Square in New York City. The squirrels there are definitely Greys -- they have white bellies and fur that looks grey-- but they had more reddish hair on their faces than the ones that live around me. While their tails have some reddish highlights in it, these also had red spots on their backs, almost like calico (you can kind of see it in this pic, or click on it to enlarge). But one major thing distinguished the ones I was feeding. They had fluffy white tufts behind each ear. You can see that here, as this one was just releasing my hand, while stuffing the almond I gave him into his mouth with the other paw.  Adorable.  I have a serious squirrel crush.

Several people in the park saw me feeding them and were astonished --and I saw a few try tofeed them by hand too. They succeeded with a little instruction and the remainder of my almonds... though these squirrels were so easy to call over I can't imagine people don't feed them all the time. In my park in Houston, very few touch my hand when they take a nut, though they will climb on my foot, lap or knee to get one. In NYC, every one of them gently balanced their paws on my fingers and even held onto me for a few beats after the almond was in their mouth (swoon --I LOVE THAT!).

When I lived in NY, I had no ability to have animals in my life, being terribly allergic to pretty much everything. But I've always desperately loved animals. To avoid the sheer heartbreak of what I thought was a life doomed to have none, I kind of steered clear of them in general. But I remember offering squirrels a cashew or two in this very park a few years ago and none were responsive. Have I become a squirrel whisperer or have they gotten trained in the short time I've been gone?

It was 62 degrees and very very humid on Saturday there, but on Sunday, temps dropped to 36 degrees. I was feeding these fellas on Monday and a few had really thick winter coats. In Houston the Reds coats get thicker than Greys, but nowhere as thick as this guy's. He looks like a member of the cast of Doctor Zivago or something. You can barely see his feet and he has no neck -- I mean, he almost looks like a different animal altogether! But he will need it if he's to make it through the winter on the east coast. 

If you want to read a fun book about one woman's adventures feeding squirrels in New York City, check out: SQUIRRELS AT MY WINDOW by Grace Spruch. If you click on that it will take you to the book description.

After my expereinces in the park, compounded by feeding the baby squirrels after Hurricane Ike, I started to look up books on them and ordered this among many. I've been meaning to reccomend it, especially to Bindu, who first commented on my blog because she got some of our orphan babies to nurture up where she lives in Austin (talk about coincidence)!