Pale Male

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Pale Male (b. 1991) is a male Red-tailed Hawk who has made his home since the early 1990s in New York City, where he has attracted the widespread attention of birders and the press. Birdwatcher and author Marie Winn gave him his name because of his unusually light coloring. He is the first red-tailed hawk known to have nested on a building rather than in a tree and is famous for establishing a dynasty of urban-dwelling raptors (he is known to have sired at least 26 chicks, many of whom have produced city offspring of their own).

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[edit] Chronology

When he first arrived in Central Park in 1991, Pale Male tried to nest in a tree, but he was driven off by crows. He later roosted on a building on Fifth Avenue across the street from the park. In early 1992, he found a mate, dubbed First Love. [1] First Love was injured later that year and removed to the Raptor Trust in New Jersey. During her absence, Pale Male took another mate, called Chocolate by birdwatchers. After several unsuccessful nests, Pale Male and a mate, possibly Chocolate, hatched 3 chicks in 1995. The chicks survived to young adulthood and took up residence in Central Park. Chocolate died later that year of unknown causes.

First Love returned to Central Park after being banded and released from the Raptor Trust. She and Pale Male reunited and raised several chicks. In 1997, First Love died after eating a poisoned pigeon in Central Park.

Pale Male's mate from 1998 to 2001 was a hawk known as Blue. The pair were observed to hatch about 11 chicks together. Blue is presumed to have died in the summer of 2001.

In early 2002, Pale Male was first observed with his current mate, Lola. They raised 7 chicks between 2002 and 2004, building a nest on ornamental stonework above a top-story window on a very upscale residential housing cooperative at 927 Fifth Avenue (at East 74th Street) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

[edit] Nest Controversy

In December 2004, the hawks' nest and the anti-pigeon spikes that had long anchored it were removed by the board of the co-op. The removal caused an international outcry and a series of impassioned protests organized by New York City Audubon and the Central Park birding community. Mary Tyler Moore, a resident of the building, also participated in the protests. On December 14, 2004, the building, various city agencies, and the Audubon Society, coordinated by New York City Audubon, came to an agreement to replace the spikes and to install a new "cradle" for the nest. On the same day, Lincoln Karim, one of the leading protesters, was arrested for allegedly harassing the family of Richard Cohen, including his wife, CNN news anchor Paula Zahn. (These charges were subsequently dismissed.) By December 28, 2004, the scaffolding had been removed and the hawks started bringing twigs to the nest site. However, eggs laid by Lola in March 2005 did not hatch, and in fact Pale Male and Lola have not hatched any new chicks since the disturbance of their original nest. [2]

[edit] Relocation to Upper West Side

In early summer 2006 Pale Male and Lola made visits to the The Beresford apartments on the Upper West Side, apparently enjoying a perch there which receives good late afternoon light. They built a new nest there in 2007, but again laid eggs that did not hatch. In July 2007, Pale Male was attacked by a stone-tossing construction worker; "Antonio Torrado" was reported fired from the construction company doing work at the site.[3] Apparently, no real harm was done to Pale Male,[4] although the true perpetrator remained at large.[5] A panel of experts assembled by the New York City Audubon reviewed the photos taken of the interior of the nest on January 4, 2008 and recommended the removal of stainless steel spikes seen protruding through the bowl of the nest. The spikes impede the rolling of the eggs by the female during incubation. NYC Audubon obtained the support and approvals of the necessary municipal agencies and property owners to have the 92 spikes removed from the cradle supporting the nest.

[edit] Other Red-Tailed Hawks in Central Park

At the south end of the park, a hawk couple dubbed Pale Male Junior (or just Junior) and Charlotte nested on the Trump Park hotel on Central Park South in 2005 and successfully raised two chicks. In 2007, they moved their nest to a building on Seventh Avenue at 57th Street (two blocks south of the park) and raised one chick. Junior and Charlotte may often be found in the vicinity of the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, at the southeast corner of the park. Junior's first attempt at nesting on Trump Park was in March of 2002. This was with a different female and all attempts at the site failed until his success in 2005.

A hawk couple known as Tristan and Isolde claim Central Park's Great Hill and North Wood as their territory, but their nest is located about four blocks from the park at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, overlooking Morningside Park. They successfully raised two chicks in 2006 and three in 2007.

The Central Park Christmas Bird Count held December 17, 2006, determined that there were probably ten red-tailed hawks in the park that day, but it was expected that the extra four hawks would be driven off once the 2007 mating season began.

In recent years, many more red-tailed hawks have taken up residence in New York City. A 2007 study commissioned by the Audubon Society reported that pairs of red-tails were spotted breeding in nests at 32 locations throughout the city, and hawk watchers say they have spotted hundreds of unattached red-tails across the five boroughs. [6]

[edit] In Popular Culture

Alt-Country singer Steve Earle references Pale Male in his song "Down Here Below", from the 2007 album Washington Square Serenade.

Pale Male made several appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien where he played the piano with The Max Weinberg 7[7]

At least three children's illustrated books about Pale Male have been published, including:
The Tale of Pale Male: a True Story, by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt, 2007);
City Hawk: the Story of Pale Male, by Meghan McCarthy (Simon & Schuster, 2007); and
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City, by Janet Schulman (Knopf, 2008)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lincoln Karim's blog, Palemale & Lola, 23 February 2005.
  2. ^ "The Fifth Avenue Ballad of Pale Male and Lola" [1]
  3. ^ Cristina Luckner, "Turkey vs Hawk" in New York Post, 14 July 2007
  4. ^ Heidi Singer, "Rocked Pale Male Soars On" in New York Post, 14 July 2007.
  5. ^ Lincoln Karim's blog, Palemale & Lola, 13 July 2007.
  6. ^ "The Fifth Avenue Ballad of Pale Male and Lola" [2]
  7. ^ NBC.com Late Night with Conan O'Brien

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links