CR #2

Wriley Hodge

 

Today, while sitting on my back porch, I saw something I have never seen before nor expected to see ever. I saw a squirrel running across the neighbors fence with something in its mouth. It took me a minute to figure it out, but it turned out that the squirrel was moving nests. In the bundles of twigs and fluff that the squirrel carried were newborns. This squirrel — which on no real evidence I suspect is a she… — made the decision to expose her newborns in order to move nests. Now what could cause a squirrel — a species whose young usually don’t leave the nest until they are practically fully grown — to do such a thing? My guess is that it’s my new neighbors, who per quarantine, are DIYing the renovation of their house. The mini crane they brought in and the unshingling of the whole house was probably more than enough to get this squirrel to move their nest. 

 

I find it interesting how the wildlife in Ditmas Park, and all of New York I suppose, oscillates to the rhythm of real estate. People move out, their house is quickly reclaimed by the squirrels and raccoons; the neighborhood cats and the various weeds and plants that seem to grow knee high in a single day move in shortly after. For this squirrel, the appearance of new homeowners forced a change in nesting location. 

 

By now, you are probably wondering how exactly this squirrel and their (her?) kits relate to my essential question (What stories do the people plants and animals of ditmas park have to tell?). But I think what this little moment offers is a crossroads of wildlife and people — it tells the story of how we affect one another in our odd concrete jungle.

I think that there is something so interesting about watching animals and their offspring — the anthropomorphic kinship of watching a creature take care of their young is unbelievable. So now, looking forward, I am wondering how I can show this in a painting. Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a picture of the squirrel in question, though I have a clear enough picture for a loose painting. I am thinking that perhaps the way to do this will be a triptik. One painting of my neighbors DIYing, another of the squirrel moving, another of it in a new nest.