Christmas Eve with Gray Squirrels

The last several years, Toby and I have set up a tradition of sorts, going for a nice, quiet walk on Christmas Day. This year, we thought we’d continue this tradition. However, weather forecasts called for rain and sleet. Somehow that seemed so much more daunting than the -25C walks in Edmonton! So we opted to go a day early, when sunshine was predicted.

As luck would have it, the entrances to Riverside Park up by our area were finally reopened. They’d been closed for about 10 blocks for most of autumn for reconstruction. Turns out they’d put in stone steps, doing away with the sloped dirt paths into the park.

Riverside Park runs along the Hudson River (separated by a 4-lane freeway and bike/jogging path) for 2.5 miles. (Every 20 streets on Manhattan is one mile.) So entered the park from 122nd Street and ended up walking to the end of the park proper at 72nd Street. (The jogging path and bike route continues along the Hudson River to the south end of the island, but the thought of walking directly next to the freeway was uninviting.)

The park has several paved paths running parallel, with many benches on which to rest and enjoy the view. Often, we found ourselves above the highway traffic and so could pretend we weren’t walking alongside the freeway. Once in a while, we encountered a dog run. The city has many of these fenced in, sandy areas in which dogs are allowed to run off-leash. Unfortunately, they’re only about 50 ft long, so “running” is only available to lap dogs! Luckily, parts of Riverside Park are quiet enough that larger dogs can run and fetch without much hassle.

Certainly the highlight of our walk were the abundance of gray squirrels! Being a warm day (in the 40’s, if I remember correctly), many many squirrels were out, digging through fallen leaves in search of acorns. We could tell which parts of the park were more heavily used by the level of shyness in the squirrel population! In one part, squirrels came right up to us. One even appeared ready to leap onto my coat! So much so that I took an involuntary step backward, just in case.

Unlike the western red squirrels we’d watched in Alberta, these eastern gray ones seemed to spend more time on the ground than in trees. They were also quieter. In fact, we’ve not heard a squirrel chatter since we arrived! What a contrast to the raucous red squirrels made if you even thought of going near their terrirtory!

We made our way back along Broadway and marveled again at the ridiculousness of wealthy New Yorkers. This district is known as the Upper West Side, and is one of the posher neighbourhoods in Manhattan. Children were trussed up in adult clothing, with salon-done hairstyles and wearing make-up! Ugh! Ridiculous shoes abound. On one end, there are the Ugg boots, those giant things made to look like arctic-ready wear, only they probably couldn’t stand up in -50C weather. On the other end are the pointy-toed stilleto boots, which I’m sure would hold up along the icy slopes we’ve been getting, thanks to rainfall and temperatures hovering near freezing! What a strange place I’m living in!