By Ranger Stevie | Columnist

Hello all.

It is so good to be back in Allegheny Commons Park. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Stevie and I absolutely love being outdoors and interacting with everyone.

In 2017, when I started as a ranger, I was assigned to Allegheny Commons. The Northside holds a special place to me as I spent most of my childhood in the Northside, attending Sarah Heinz House as well as going to Allegheny Traditional for middle school and Perry for high school. So working in the Northside to help keep our parks safe as well as provide programming for the community truly brings me so much happiness.

Please continue reading to see what we have going on in the Commons over that last month.

Getting back into a routine of patrolling the commons has brought me so much happiness. The monuments, the people, the dog park, the squirrels and other wildlife, Gus & Yiayia’s and of course DPW keeping our park so beautiful!

Last month during that extreme heat DPW was busy, busy, busy, adding new seating around the dog park which included new picnic tables (that cannot be moved) as well as additional benches for seating and they look so great. On top of the concrete pads, if you jumped across the tracks to the tennis courts, Derrick Lewis with DPW was working on cleaning the tennis courts and just wow! Each court takes about a week to clean, and he did such a fabulous job!

One doesn’t look like the others

Have you seen the blonde squirrel near the National Aviary? I have a question for you all! Is it a blonde squirrel or an albino squirrel?

After much observation and research, I am almost certain this is an albino eastern gray squirrel, but I am still waiting to hear back from a naturalist to make sure. The chances of a female eastern gray squirrel having an albino offspring is one in 100,000. This means this little guy is pretty special and is fortunately just like all the other squirrels in the Commons, friendly.

Unfortunately, although this squirrel is looking pretty dapper, he stands out like a sore thumb and not in a good way. Some may know but for those who may not know, the hawks in Allegheny Commons are very common and always on the hunt, and with this light coloring it makes it extremely hard for this mammal to blend in.

I encourage you all to get out for a walk and try to find Mr. Blondie near the Aviary. He is extremely cool looking and not many people get the chance to see a blonde squirrel let alone an albino squirrel. Keep on the lookout for our August Column as I will go more in depth, and we will find out for sure if it is a blonde squirrel or an albino squirrel.

Walks with Ranger Stevie

• July 10 — Photography Hike with Ranger Stevie in Allegheny Commons from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Meeting Location: Tennis courts at Gus & Yiayia’s

• July 24 — History Hike Allegheny Commons Park from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Meeting Location: Tennis courts at Gus & Yiayia’s

Please RSVP to lauren.smith@pittsburghpa.gov