Not on my back ledge

Hawks had been living outside a building opposite Central Park, returning year after year to raise their offspring (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times photo) until the co-op board just said no.  Reminds us of our own MIT HawkCam experience of last spring, only ours had a happy ending.

"Not in my penthouse: Blue-state liberals destroy hawks's nest in New York City," headlines Thomas of The Galvin Opinion, citing a New York Times do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do story of how the other half lives that made our blood boil:

A nest constructed a decade ago by red-tailed hawks 12 stories above Central Park, creating an unlikely wildlife habitat that has delighted bird lovers from around the world, was removed yesterday, apparently by workers for its host co-op apartment building.

City officials and naturalists reacted with anger, even though there appeared to be little legal recourse for the nest's destruction.

Experts said that the fate of a family of uncommonly large and resilient birds, which have reproduced prolifically from the nest, had been thrown into doubt. So was that of the nest's most famous red-tailed resident, Pale Male, who arrived at the building in 1993 and, according to detailed records kept by several bird-watchers, has sired 23 youngsters.

Hubba, Hubba.  Pale Male rules the roost!

"I am so outraged that they would do this without so much as a by your leave," said Mary Tyler Moore, who has lived for 15 years in the co-op at 927 Fifth Avenue, at 74th Street, where the nest was built in 1993 above a cornice in clear view of Central Park.

Ms. Moore said other residents of the building had objected to large bird droppings and, occasionally, the carcasses of pigeons -- which hawks prey upon -- that landed on the sidewalk in front of their lobby. She said her husband had attended a recent co-op board meeting, and had been informed of its all-but-unanimous decision to remove the nest, even though he had objected to the move.

The story of Pale Male and his offspring has been well documented. Marie Winn, whose 1998 book on the subject, Red-Tails in Love, was the basis of a PBS documentary called "Pale Male," said yesterday that the nest had been removed once before, in 1993, the year it was built.

The nest was built amid metal spikes that were placed on the 12th-floor cornice to discourage pigeons from roosting, and the spikes had the unintended effect of providing a strong structure to brace a hawks' nest against the wind. After it was destroyed in 1993, Pale Male rebuilt, Ms. Winn said.

As our sis says, you don't like hawk droppings?  Try pigeon droppings, big boy. Now that the spikes have been removed from the ledge, that's your unintended consequence.  An occasional pigeon carcass beats pigeon droppings any day.

The nesting season for Pale Male and his current mate, Lola, does not begin until January or later, and eggs are normally laid in the nest in March.

But even now, Pale Male, Lola and other red-tailed hawks can be seen performing courtship rituals that involve flying in circles over Central Park.

Whether they will attempt to rebuild the nest at 927 Fifth Avenue remains in doubt, she said, particularly because its metal supports have been removed.

We are reminded of the bone-wearying, soul-deadening hypocrisy of Norman Lear years ago when he admitted -- even as he haughtily dissed the unwashed like ourselves for driving gas guzzlers -- that he just wasn't "ready" yet to give up his Mercedes. Not to mention his private jet. These people have lost touch with nature and all that is holy.

Comments

[pam]

That's just.... soul-sucking wrong. :(

[Sissy Willis]

Haven't these people seen Hitchcock's "The Birds"?

[acjgoomp]

What jerks those New Yorkers be. Remembering the fun that was had by all with the MIT hawks being live on the web how can I but pity or despise jerko libs.

[Miguel]

What goes, Sisu? I have the impression that the lefties are becoming insane. I mean, really, clinically, insane. Don't they realize their inconsistency? They seem more and more crazy as time goes by. It's sad to see people loosing their grasp of reality so badly.