www.MarkTAW.com/local/PaleMale.html (printable version)

Pale Male
Certainly you've heard of Pale Male by now. You havent? The Red Tail Hawk living in New York City. No? Well read on.

Against all logic, a red-tailed hawk has decided to make his home in New York City. He is approximately thirteen years old and has known to have sired twenty-six chicks with four mates. His name Pale Male reflects his unusual white plumage, he was first spotted in Central Park in the winter of 1991.

Pale Male lives on rats, mice, pigeons and small birds. The biggest threat to Pale Male and his family are pigeons that are poisoned to keep their population down.

Pale Male and his mate Lola lives in Central Park, but has a nest at 927 Fifth Avenue used for hatching eggs and raising chicks. Once the chicks are old enough, they too roost in the park in trees, and sometimes buildings. A week and a half ago, he was evicted a week and a half ago by a thoughtless construction worker. The city, understandably, is un uproar and people have been protesting every day, including residents of the co-op like actress. Mary Tyler Moore.

Pale Male made his nest above a window in pigeon spikes. These metal spikes are designed to prevent pigeons from pirching, but it seems they're also good at preventing twigs from flying away.

Earlier this week, the co-op board has agreed to allow the hawks to rebuild their nest.

The agreement forged by Audubon Society and co-op officials centered on a strategy to allow the hawks, Pale Male and Lola, to rebuild their nest in the same spot on a 12th-floor cornice. The co-op, led by Richard Cohen, its board president and Ms. Zahn's husband, had sought to steer the hawks to another location on the building by providing a platform or box, but agreed yesterday that "the hawks will return to the same spot," Mr. Cohen said in an interview. (nytimes.com)

But all is still not well. Scaffolding occupies the space above the nest, and Pale Male and his mate Lola are circling the building just waiting for the time when they can return home.

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page first created on Saturday, December 18, 2004

this site and it's contents copyright Mark Wieczorek