BY MICHAEL OSSORGUINE | Paul the Pigeon Man of Washington Square Park is known as a human magnet for the park’s pigeon flocks. But starting about a month ago, Paul’s pet pigeon Opal has been flying over to warmly greet Doris Diether, the veteran Community Board 2 member, every time she walks into the park on her daily routine.
The graceful grayish bird with white wing tips flies straight to the revered “zoning maven” for her daily fix of peanuts. She pecks them out of Diether’s hand while perching ever so comfortably on the octogenarian activist’s walker.
Hovering around Diether, fluttering from one handlebar to the other, Opal hangs out with her for quite a while.
Diether, who was recently featured in the “Humans of New York: Stories” book, has branched out into sharing her community fame with animals.
Squirrels have also taken a liking to her. She says that she only needs to look over at a pack of them and make an enticing squeaking noise for the fuzzy critters to know it’s feeding time.
