Pale Male Chronology
By Robert Winkler
About the Author

May 1, 2008: Reprise: The Fifth Avenue ballad of Pale Male and Lola (The New York Times; requires subscription)
March 13, 2008: Pale Male and Lola set for first chicks in four years (New York Daily News)
January 2008: NYC Audubon fixes Pale Male and Lola's nesting platform (pdf)
                       (also see James Lewis's history of the Fifth Avenue red-tailed hawks)
July 18, 2007: Pale Male tale: It was just bread (New York Post)
July 15, 2007: Rocked Pale Male soars on (New York Post)
July 14, 2007: Turkey vs. hawk: Jerk nails Pale Male with rock (New York Post)
June 10, 2007: Why interest in Pale Male shouldn't flummox Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof
April 5, 2007: Hawk nut a $oar loser (New York Post)
July 15, 2006: Hawks' no-yolk failure (New York Daily News)
June 9, 2006: Field notes on my second pilgrimage to Pale Male's building
April 20, 2006: Pale Male and Lola likely to remain chickless this year (NY1 News)
March 10, 2006: Famous hawks try again to fill a familiar empty nest (The New York Times; requires subscription)
December 14, 2005: Bird activist sues residents of New York building (RedOrbit)
July 1, 2005: Ruffled feathers on Fifth Avenue (Vanity Fair)
April 29, 2005: 5th Ave. address, but no youngsters in nest (The New York Times; requires subscription)
March 15, 2005: Hawks may be awaiting the stork; next big thing in the nest? Only they know (The New York Times; requires subscription)
March 1, 2005: How the nest was won (Audubon magazine)
February 9, 2005: Fish and Wildlife Service answers my letter to Gale Norton
January 27, 2005: Charges against hawk demonstrator dropped
January 11, 2005: My letter to Gale Norton
January 3, 2005: My response to The New Yorker
December 26, 2004: My response to the public editor of The New York Times
December 24, 2004: News on nest restoration
December 17, 2004: Field notes on my pilgrimage to Pale Male's building
December 13, 2004: News on nest destruction

Why interest in Pale Male shouldn't flummox Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof

June 10, 2007

Dear Mr. Kristof,

Re these passages from your May 10, 2007 column, Save the Darfur Puppy:

“Finally, we're beginning to understand what it would take to galvanize President Bush, other leaders and the American public to respond to the genocide in Sudan: a suffering puppy with big eyes and floppy ears.

"... a dog stranded on a ship aroused so much pity that $48,000 in private money was spent trying to rescue it ... And after I began visiting Darfur in 2004, I was flummoxed by the public's passion to save a red-tailed hawk, Pale Male, that had been evicted from his nest on Fifth Avenue in New York City. A single homeless hawk aroused more indignation than two million homeless Sudanese.

"... after four years of watching the U.N. Security Council, the International Criminal Court and the Genocide Convention accomplish little in Darfur, I'm skeptical that either human rationality or international law can achieve much unless backed by a public outcry. ... maybe what we need isn't better laws but more troubled consciences.

"If President Bush and the global public alike are unmoved by the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of fellow humans, maybe our last, best hope is that we can be galvanized by a puppy in distress."

What flummoxes me is how you slap animal welfare proponents in the face while professing compassion for dislocated, brutalized human beings. Pale Male brought out the best in New Yorkers; after all this time, it's a shame that you fail to understand his significance.

No doubt many Darfurians have pets and domestic animals they care about deeply, and I daresay some have a passion for wildlife. Yet you imply that Americans with these same feelings have disordered priorities. The ability to sustain mutually rewarding relationships with other species is in fact one of humanity's highest evolutionary achievements, having given rise to endangered species protection, pollution control, land preservation, hunting regulations, and consensus at last that we need to act on global warming

Caring about wildlife, sharing our homes with pets, and wanting to rescue "a suffering puppy with big eyes and floppy ears" are signs of strength, not weakness—what Edward O. Wilson has called biophilia, the innate human need to affiliate with other forms of life. "Our existence," Wilson writes, "depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, and hope rises on its currents."

So-called humanitarians commonly imply, as you have in your column, that animal lovers lack conscience over the plight of fellow humans caught in cruel circumstances. I won’t waste time responding to the flagrant illogic of such a charge. I will say that, were you more in touch with your own biophilia, you would have avoided taking shots at Pale Male fans and at dog lovers, and perhaps you would have transcended the frivolous and sarcastic pseudo-solution that your understandable frustration over Darfur has trapped you into proposing.

P.S. There's no such thing as a homeless or evicted hawk. Click here to find out why.
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Field notes on my second pilgrimage to Pale Male's building

June 9, 2006
Walked from Barnard College to Central Park's model sailboat pond (near 74th St. and Fifth Ave.) and back
5:30-9:30p

Left Mom at her 60th Barnard reunion about six and walked downtown from 117th St. on Broadway. Left bins in car, parked smack in front of Barnard's main entrance, bec I didn't want to lug them and figured I could borrow looks from another birder if Pale Male was around. Grabbed a falafel sandwich at a place called Jerusalem (and a coke) and cut E. above 100th St., walked down Amsterdam Ave. for awhile, then cut east again thru a brownstone neighborhood. Ate on a bench on the Central Park side of Central Park West, then took the next road into the park. I think this was in the 80s but maybe the seventies.

Feeling my way to the model boat pond, skirted most of the major attractions: the pond where a gondola was (the gondolier singing--I forget what this main pond is called), the Great Lawn (baseball fields), the Ramble (which I didn't enter for fear of being followed, though it was lush and tangled and inviting), the Bow Bridge (glimpsed in the distance) and the Bethesda Fountain, where a wedding couple was posing for pictures and some idiot from a horse and carriage called "good luck" to them. (There were also people being driven around in bicycle-powered rickshaws. Really dumb.) 

I walked alternately on the bridle path, dirt trails, paved roads on which there was no traffic except runners and cyclists, quiet trails thru rolling terrain--all the while, I hoped, heading in the general direction of the model boat pond. The couple of info kiosks I stopped at were useless bec they don't say "you are here" anywhere. Asked an older woman with compact bins where boat pond was and she said it was on the East Side, so I guess I was still closer to the West Side. She said to cut over at the boathouse before I got to 72nd St. and she smiled when I thanked her--the only birder I saw.

Soon, thru the trees, I saw the green roof of the model boat pond bldg and down I went, recalling the freezing day [Dec. 17, 2004] when I saw Lola hunting along the paved, sloping footpath toward evening. A few people sat on the benches that face Pale Male's building. No birders except for the ever-faithful Lincoln Karim, who stood at the edge of the pond near his tripod-mounted camera with huge telephoto lens. Two blond girls were playing with it--looking at mallards, planes and buildings--while their mother talked to him. It was about 7:15p. From the way Lincoln behaved I knew Pale Male wasn't around, but now and then he would glance up, almost always at the bldg with the nest, but sometimes at buildings to the north, and once I saw him look north thru his bins.

There were house sps, rock doves, robins and orioles (singing) and elsewhere in the park kingbirds. A gull or osprey passed over the model boat pond. At 8p, ready to leave, I asked Lincoln if PM was around and he said no, bec the nesting season is over. When I asked if PM had been seen lately, he said PM and Lola were here two hours ago. He said they still visit the nest and adjust sticks. He said they were unlikely to show up again today and if they did they would be looking for a tree to sleep in. He wore a photo vest and let me look thru his camera at the nesting platform. It was sunny and I think breezy, the late-aft sunlight fading quickly. I have to hand it to Lincoln. He sticks with Pale Male after all the publicity and attention are over, after all the other birders have moved on.

To get back to the West Side, I followed the paved running/cycling road. Two or three of the runners invaded my space. Coming toward me, they came so close I had to move slightly. Maybe in Manhattan personal space is smaller, or maybe a walker is not supposed to use these lanes--a sign designates graphically that one lane is for bikes and the other is for runners (the one closest to the curb)--though I can't imagine a rule excluding walkers could exist. I went up the steps of the reservoir building to the reservoir--huge and impressive, bordered on the east and west sides by buildings. I recognized it from the opening scene of Marathon Man. Walked along it for awhile as runners went by. The park is owned by runners. Between the reservoir and Barnard/Columbia, this visit was almost a tour of Marathon Man shooting locations, and now I want to rent the movie.

The only part of Central Park I missed was the zoo, and I'm glad I did bec I'm sure it would depress me. I changed my mind [see Dec. 17, 2004 field notes]: the park really is beautiful, as Frederic Lilien said. A good project would be to live in the park for a year and write a book about it, not just on birds. I cut over to Broadway from I think 86th St., where the park road comes out on Central Park West. You get numb to all the pretty people in the sidewalk cafes. You wonder at all the buildings, built by and filled with people. You feel insignificant. I drove home more competitively; a violent thunderstorm broke just as we got on the HH parkway. Fuck the other guy. New York does that to you. It's not a bad thing, either, to get in this competitive mode. This is city life.

Huge accident on the Merritt in Trumbull, with fire engines, ambulances, cars in a ditch and rescuers helping people lying on the ground. I figure I walked the equivalent of 100 blocks. Got blisters on the soles of my feet and hurt my right ankle.
—Robert Winkler
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Ruffled feathers on Fifth Avenue

News—July 1, 2005
The July issue of Vanity Fair reveals the identity of "Deep Throat." It also has an interview with Nicole Kidman, who is on the cover (and whose wistful beauty makes me go weak in the knees). But the Throat story and Nicole interview aren't why I shelled out $4.50 for a magazine I don't normally read. I bought it for the long, photo-illustrated article on Pale Male, and I recommend you do the same if you're interested in gaining insight into why the co-op board members of 927 Fifth Ave. thought they could get away with destroying the hawk's nest. The article also explains the backroom maneuvering by Audubon officials that got the board to restore the nest site (at a cost of $100,000). Written by Frank DiGiacomo, it's a bit top-heavy with details on, and cryptic admiration of, the New York elite who can afford $18 million living quarters, a bit light on exploring why the nest's destruction sparked universal outrage. But considering the magazine's obsession with wealth and celebrity, this approach is understandable. It's a good piece overall, and I give Vanity Fair credit for devoting space to the kind of article that neither The New Yorker nor The New York Times was capable of publishing.
—Robert Winkler
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Fish and Wildlife Service answers my letter to Gale Norton

February 9, 2005

From:
United States Department of the Interior
Fish and Wildlife Service
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035-9589

To:
Mr. Robert Winkler
P.O. Box 123
Botsford, Connecticut 06404

Dear Mr. Winkler:

Thank you for your letter of January 11, 2005, to Secretary Gale Norton, regarding the destruction of an unoccupied hawk nest in New York City. Secretary Norton has asked us to respond.

As you correctly indicate, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is responsible for enforcing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) of 1918, as amended. As explained in our Migratory Bird Permit Memorandum, dated April 15, 2003 (enclosed), the MBTA does not contain any prohibition that applies to the destruction of a migratory bird nest alone (without eggs or juvenile birds), provided that no possession occurs during the destruction. Prior to the issuance of this memorandum, our Regional Offices received numerous questions and applications for depredation permits to remove unoccupied nests, when permits were not necessary. Therefore, the purpose of this memorandum was to better inform the public about the MBTA and the opportunity for property owners to remove unoccupied nests in order to alleviate property damage.

The incident that you describe in your letter is a good example of the necessity to explain this legal issue to the public. You are correct in that no one in our Division of Migratory Birds was aware that the building at Fifth Avenue and 74th Street was the nesting site of well-known red-tailed hawks. Our Regional Chief of the Division of Migratory Birds, Diane Pence, had informed a New York Times reporter of the facts regarding this particular incident. Even if our staff had known that this building was the nesting site of a famous pair of hawks, the provisions explained in our April 15, 2003, memorandum would still apply, as they would for any other migratory bird.

We are, however, pleased to have learned that the building owners constructed a nesting platform that should prevent any possible damages to their building, and that the platform has been repeatedly visited by the hawks in question. During the uproar surrounding this incident, it had seemed impossible to envision an outcome that was in the best interest of both the public and the hawks. Fortunately, we conclude that this has happened, assuming the pair will successfully nest on the platform in the near future.

Thank you for your interest in protecting migratory birds. Should you have any questions, please contact Ms. Sherry Morgan, Assistant Regional Director, Migratory Birds and State Programs (MBSP) at 413-253-8610, or Diane Pence, Chief, Division of Migratory Birds, MBSP, at 413-253-8541.

Sincerely,
Marvin E. Moriarty
Regional Director
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Charges against hawk demonstrator dropped

News—January 27, 2005
Prosecutors dropped charges yesterday against a man accused of stalking and harassing the CNN anchor Paula Zahn over two red-tailed hawks whose nest had been removed from the Manhattan apartment building where she lives. Prosecutors said that Ms. Zahn declined to proceed with the case against Lincoln Karim, a video engineer for Associated Press Television News who was among scores of people who protested the removal of the hawks from the building, a high-rise on Fifth Avenue. Mr. Karim, 43, was arrested last month on stalking, harassment and child endangerment charges. Ms. Zahn had filed a complaint after Mr. Karim allegedly chased her family near her home and reduced her 7-year-old son to tears by screaming, "House of shame! Bring back the nest!" (AP)
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My letter to Gale Norton

January 11, 2005

The Honorable Gale Norton
Secretary of the Interior
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Madam Secretary:

I'm sure you're familiar with Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk whose nest on a Manhattan building ledge was destroyed on December 7. This criminal act was met with an uproar that forced the building's co-op board to install a support structure for a new nest, which went up on December 23.

The episode caused a great deal of heartache at Fifth Ave. and 74th St.—both for the building residents who had the nest removed, and were confronted daily by angry protesters, and for the protesters themselves, who endured winter cold and darkness to fight for a righteous cause. The nest's destruction and restoration, with attendant work crews and scaffolding, must have also put Pale Male and his mate Lola under stress, since they were prevented from going to the nest site, which they sometimes visit even in winter.

Now that the battle is over, the issue of responsibility arises, and as far as I can determine, the true villain in all of this is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When approached by the co-op board of 927 Fifth Ave. with a plan to remove the nest, the USFWS failed to enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. As you may know, this federal law protects nests as well as birds. However, the USFWS found the nest-removal plan perfectly legal, in effect giving its blessing to Pale Male's enemies. If only the USFWS had done its job, the whole episode—including the arrest of one protester—could have been averted.

According to press reports, the USFWS based its erroneous decision on a recent "clarification" or "reinterpretation" of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. If this is so, I'd like to know the authority under which USFWS employees can suddenly reinterpret the law and wield the power of federal judges. I have other questions. The New York Times reported that neither Diane Pence, head of the migratory bird division of the USFWS Northeast regional office, nor anyone on her staff, knew when presented with the nest-removal plan that the hawk in question was Pale Male, probably the most famous wild bird in America, the subject of films and books. Indeed, Ms. Pence seemed almost defiant when she told the newspaper that even if she and her staff had known, it wouldn't have made a difference. They would have permitted the destruction of Pale Male's nest anyway! 

Ms. Pence shouldn't be so proud of her unawareness. I think you'd agree that it's her business to know about such birds as Pale Male. From her comments to the press, I gather that no one from her office inspected the nest, and no one knew that Pale Male and his various mates had used the nest every spring and summer for the past 11 years to produce a dynasty of 26 offspring. Moreover, Pale Male and his current mate, Lola, surely would have used the nest again next spring if the USFWS hadn't authorized its destruction. Incredibly, Pence & Co. decided the nest was "inactive," and inactive nests, according to the suspect "clarification" of federal law I cited earlier, don't warrant protection.

Of course, your Northeast officials were confusing "inactive" with "temporarily unoccupied." Pale Male's nest was temporarily unoccupied in the late fall, as the co-op board plotted to dismantle it. Every biology student knows that late fall and early winter are the off-season for most birds. During this period, even birds that use a nest repeatedly take a break from the rigors of reproduction. Pale Male's nest was certainly not inactive when it was removed, and I can't imagine any competent ornithologist agreeing with the assessment your people made.

We now come to the matter of accountability. The USFWS made a grievous mistake. I'd like to know how you will address that, and how you plan to prevent a similar mistake from happening again. Will USFWS officials complicit in the destruction of Pale Male's nest be disciplined? Will the USFWS issue a public apology? Will you file charges against those on the co-op board who ordered a federally protected nest removed? Will you abandon your misguided "clarification" of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and get back to enforcing it, which is your sworn duty?

I eagerly await your reply.

Sincerely,
Robert Winkler
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My response to The New Yorker

News—January 3, 2005
The Jan. 3 issue of The New Yorker has a rant against Pale Male (disguised as an interview) by one Nick Paumgarten. His "Talk of the Town" column, titled "Pluck You," begins on a paranoid note, describing how the "usual coalition of bird-lovers and co-op haters" came to the defense of Pale Male when the hawk's Fifth Ave. nest was destroyed. Yes, folks, it's an environmentalist plot to bring down New York society. Whom does the writer seek out for an opinion on the matter? Al Goldstein, the now-homeless founder of Screw magazine, who thinks that Pale Male should be baked in a pie and that birders should do something useful with their lives, like help the homeless (or, I suppose, become pornographers like ol' Al). As humor, which I think is what this bizarre exercise was meant to be, the piece falls flat because the writer clearly sympathizes with Goldstein's views.

That people could have an interest in urban birds seems to irritate The New Yorker editors, and that mere birders and concerned citizens could force New York City's rich and powerful to right a grievous wrong is a truth they can't handle. The co-op board of 927 Fifth Ave., who had ordered the nest dismantled, reversed themselves in the face of public pressure and commissioned a $100,000 architect-designed nest cradle, installing it where the old nest had been in the hope that Pale Male and his mate Lola would rebuild. Instead of celebrating this decisive and amazingly quick victory, The New Yorker belittles it. "Besieged by hawk chic," Paumgarten effetely writes, "the building agreed to take Pale Male back. Crisis, if not revolution, averted." Hawk chic? Try nationwide outrage.

Goldstein is sick of hearing about Pale Male. Paumgarten seems to feel the same way, calling Pale Male "the celebrity hawk and victim of the hour." Here's what I'm sick of: First, word-play headlines like "Pluck You," which I've had to endure for weeks as so-called journalists have felt compelled to dumb-down and sell the news rather than just report it. Second, misguided columnists who call Pale Male homeless, and then take bird lovers to task for not fighting with equal fervor to help homeless people.

There's a bit of a problem in comparing a hawk without a nest to humans without a home: it's a false analogy. Pale Male is not homeless—never was, never will be. He's a wild animal. He lives outdoors. He captures live squirrels, rats, mice, and pigeons with his bare talons; kills them; and eats them raw (and in the case of mice, probably whole). He needs no shelter as we know it; his "bedroom" might be a treetop or a building ledge. He wears no clothes yet can probably withstand a temperature of -50 degrees F. The destruction of his nest was a criminal act, but a bird's nest, while crucial to reproduction, shouldn't be called a home. Birds build nests for egg laying and chick rearing. For much of the year, most nests are unoccupied, even those of hawks like Pale Male, who may use the same nest annually.

So please, journalists of the world, do your readers a favor and get off the "homeless hawk" kick. It's just plain silly. Please also remember that we who love birds and believe strongly in their protection don't have to justify our passion by providing those who can't understand it with a list of the charities we support.
—Robert Winkler
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My response to the public editor of The New York Times

Dear Mr. Okrent (public editor of The New York Times),

Re your column of Dec. 26, 2004, in which you wrote: "...in just the last two weeks I was led to wonder why on earth the paper would publish a pointless and, to many readers, offensive article on a dog's 'bark mitzvah,' or a vaguely sourced, piling-on piece about Bernard Kerik's love life, or why, on one day, the paper put four reporters--four!--on the story of an evicted bird."

I have an answer to your last "why." First, the coverage of Pale Male was not about an "evicted bird," inasmuch as a bird can't be evicted, since all of nature is its home ... Coverage of Pale Male warranted four reporters because he is the first red-tailed hawk known to nest on a building. That he chose a swanky address in America's biggest city--overlooking Central Park--made his story all the more fascinating. This is why Pale Male became the subject of a book and a superb film, and why people around the world have, for over a decade, followed him, his mates, and his dynasty of more than 25 offspring. The destruction of his nest, a mean and (by my interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act) criminal deed; the public outcry surrounding the nest's destruction; and the involvement of celebrities on both sides of the issue made this story big news. Even with four reporters, I think The Times's coverage of Pale Male could have been better.

Over the years, Pale Male's story of survival in a hostile environment has inspired thousands of people. He's not just a red-tail; he's a symbol. His story has also proven that living in the middle of a big city is no excuse for biological illiteracy, which I'm afraid is what the frustrated comment in your column conveys.

There are probably 100 billion birds in the world--some 10,000 species, 900 of which occur in North America. The red-tailed hawk is the largest and most widespread member of its family on this continent. To learn about the red-tail is to learn not only about a particular species, but also about birds, wildlife, evolution, and nature. I suggest you take a stroll to 927 Fifth Ave. and get acquainted with this marvelous piece of the universe.

Sincerely,
Robert Winkler
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News on nest restoration

News—December 24, 2004
A support structure for the nest of Pale Male and Lola, the red-tailed hawks of 927 Fifth Ave. in New York City, was installed yesterday atop the arched central cornice near the roof of their 12-story building. The steel structure includes the pigeon-repellent spikes that had anchored the hawks' original nest to the narrow, sloping surface of the cornice. The nest and spikes were removed on Dec. 7 at the behest of the building’s co-op board, who complained that the large nest presented a hazard to pedestrians. They also objected to pigeon and rodent parts that the hawks let fall to the ground.

The co-op board had the nest removed after gaining tacit approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They submitted their dismantling scheme to the agency in the fall, a season when the nest is unoccupied. Of course, Pale Male and his various mates had used the nest every spring for the past 11 years, and there was every reason to believe he and Lola would use it again the following spring. The Fish and Wildlife Service, however, judged the nest inactive and therefore not subject to protection, a clear violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—the very law that this agency is supposed to enforce.

With installation of the new support structure, the co-op board made amends for the original nest’s destruction, but they did so only after a public outcry that drew worldwide media attention. Every day since Dec. 7, demonstrators have assembled across the street from 927 Fifth Ave., at the east edge of Central Park near 74th St., to demand that the co-op board “bring back the nest” and to urge passing motorists to “honk for hawks.” One zealous protester was arrested and charged with stalking the family of the co-op board’s president.

The new support structure for the nest has a railing designed to minimize the risk of falling debris (see design details, including an animation, at Dan Ionescu Architects). A few sticks have been added to encourage Pale Male and Lola to rebuild the nest when the breeding season begins, sometime in February. Following installation of the new structure, both birds are reported to have visited the nest site, a very good sign.

Red-tails are a common hawk with a four-foot wingspan. They usually nest in trees, but, in 1993, Pale Male and his first mate broke with tradition; no red-tail pair had ever nested on a building. That the hawks chose a swanky address in America's biggest city—overlooking Central Park—made their story all the more fascinating.

An outstanding film by Frederic Lilien has immortalized Pale Male, who has had four mates and raised 26 offspring. He shows every intention of continuing his Manhattan dynasty.
—Robert Winkler
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Field notes on my pilgrimage to Pale Male's building

December 17, 2004
927 Fifth Ave. and Model Sailboat Pond (Central Park), 3:15-5:30p, cold and breezy

When I arrived at W. side of Fifth Ave. opp. 927 there were a couple of handfuls of people. I took some pics of the bldg & noticed them looking down into the park betw. wall & Boat Pond Bldg, where there was a red-tail. It was a dark bird & everyone seemed agreed it was Lola! On 927, there was scaffolding hanging down from the roof above the cornice where the nest had been, but other than that no evidence that any work was going on.

I was struck by how high & far away the cornice was, & standing across the street from it on Fifth, you really have to crane your neck to see the top with bins. So, after looking in vain for hawks perched on 927 & surrounding bldgs, I went a few hundred yards south & entered the park, going down to the benches on the W. side of the Boat Pond. Took pics of 927 from there & got more glimpses of the red-tail, pointing it out to 1 or 2 people who were curious.

This sect. of the park was fairly deserted of people--there was another fellow snapping pics, people walking dogs, 2 or 3 apparently homeless people, a man w/ video cameras & lights in an alcove W. of the benches (later, when I asked if he had seen hawks he said he was Portuguese & did not speak English). The red-tail that must have been Lola seemed to be hunting. She played cat & mouse w/ a flock of rock pigeons.

When she flew slowly toward the tree they perched in, they moved slowly out of the way, flying out a way over the half-frozen water & coming back to land in another tree. It was a pendulum-like motion--an aerial ballet with a threatening undertone. Hawk & rock doves knew the game well. No serious attempt at a kill. Possibly she was looking for weakness.



I walked completely around the pond, losing the hawk by the time I reached the Boat Pond Bldg w/ the green roof & snack bar, but in the trees just to the S. I heard gray sq. alarm calls & saw two in the same tree & figured that the hawk was prob still around. I walked deeper into the park & went N. toward a construction crane in the distance; somewhere online I saw Pale Male perched on this but he wasn't there today. I think I went around the Boat Pond again. A man passed &, seeing my bins, asked if the spikes were back up & I answered, no I didn't see any, and he said "Those fucks!"

I went back out to Fifth Ave., where around 50 people had gathered in prep. for the 4:30p vigil, and looked there for Pale Male w/o success. Went back down into the park & walked around the Boat Pond again. Going past the Boat Pond Bldg I caught a glimpse of Lola landing in a tree right beside the sidewalk that comes from Fifth Ave. & the road perpendicular to Fifth, into the park. No other people around. Got to within 30 feet of her & she was indifferent to me. She was still hunting & it was getting dark. She had a round brown patch on her right cheek. After a few minutes she flew low, to the southwest, as if going for something on the ground, but I feared she would be going to roost hungry.

I went back to the Boat Pond bench facing 927 & hoped to spot Pale Male on a bldg. in the gathering dusk. Sister Marlane, the "bird lady" of Central Park as I later learned from her flyer, joined me & pointed out some of Pale Male's favorite perches: the Oreo bldg, Linda's balconies, various antennas--but all were unoccupied. After dark we walked to the vigil/rally/protest site. Before we left a man walking a dog greeted Marlane (as "sister") & said a dead red-tail had been found at Bethesda Fountain but that it was neither Lola nor Pale Male.

When Sister Marlane & I got opposite 927, the crowd had grown to almost 100. People shouted toward 927 to "Bring Back the Nest" & their signs said "Honk 4 Hawks" & cab drivers & bus drivers especially did honk & a tour guide from a passing Tour Bus shouted, "Yeah, Pale Male" & I waved back. A young woman holding a sign next to me said it was a big thrill when people honked. I asked if she had seen Pale Male today & she said she couldn't identify the hawks--couldn't tell them apart. She asked if I wanted to hold a sign & I said I would be leaving soon. She seemed timid, a shrinking violet calmly holding her sign in the dark, but later she shattered that impression when I saw her shouting at the bldg.

Earlier I had spoken to a man who Sister Marlane introduced me to. He had plastic-wrapped color enlargements of Pale Male for sale. He said he had seen Pale Male soaring above 927 this morning but not during the time I had been there. When I said that the scaffolding hanging below the 927 roof line would seem to block Pale Male's entrance to the nest site he scoffed & said it would be no problem. Another man said the best place to see Pale Male during the day was over the Ramble. He said it's easy to get lost there.

The young woman w/ the signs pointed out Frederic Lilien, so I went over to say hello. He was photographing a child w/ a video camera. He was very gracious, saying he remembered the email I sent him about how much I enjoyed Pale Male [his film]. He shot the film with a Canon XL w/ the equivalent of a 1,000mm lens that, w/ enhancements, was like using a 4,000mm lens. I was stunned to learn that he shot it on video--it looked so much like film--and he said that was the magic of color correction. He shot a massive amount of raw footage--stopped counting at 300 hours, he said, for the 54-minute film. He was tall w/ a mustache and maybe still in his thirties, wearing a white wool cap & a light jacket or heavy shirt. He said he was mostly living in Belgium. Pale Male was his first film. What was he working on now? "This," he said. "It's a great story."

I told him that his film really made Central Park look beautiful. He answered, "It's a beautiful park." But I wasn't feeling that on this cold, windy day in the dusk-turned-to-dark, w/o a Pale Male sighting. He looked cold, & I was shivering. I shook his hand & he seemed genuinely pleased we had spoken. I crossed the street & walked S. in front of 927, peering in to see two doormen leaning forward over a counter, watching the demonstrators. Waded through the sea of humanity again on the way back to Grand Central. One of every four people seems to be on a cellphone. I peed in the Waldorf, as I had on the way up, tipping a different bathroom attendant, who was grateful for my $1--or was he being sarcastic? $2 for peeing and worth every penny. Ate falafel in a chair on the lower level of Grand Central. Endured the usual inane conversation on the way home & watched a 50ish blond woman put on makeup, rouge, mascara, lipstick, & perfume before she got off in Stamford. People are in love w/ their cellphones. They stare down into them. I guess they're reading text messages. Linda says it makes them feel important.

The nest of Pale Male is much farther away than it appears in the film. Even thru bins it was far & would be impossible to photograph even w/ very long lenses. Thru the naked eye, the cornice is tiny & remote. Pale Male & his family have a great spot, well insulated from people & the hub-bub of the city. Not my kind of place, though--Central Park. I much prefer my home woods. One older woman w/ gray closely cropped hair tried to tell me that the roundish brown spot I had seen on Lola's cheek was typical of all RT Hawks. And when I expressed frustration over failing to see Pale Male, the man selling the photos made some kind of 'you have to put in the time/pay your dues' remark. I answered that I saw Lola after five minutes. Guess these types are unavoidable wherever you go in the birding world.

One woman was confident that the 927 people would make good on their promise. She said they had discovered some water damage where the nest had been, & that this could be causing a delay in restoring the nest. I should have said good-bye to Sister Marlane.
—Robert Winkler
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News on nest destruction

News—December 13, 2004
I’m compelled to add my voice to the outcry over removal of the red-tailed hawks’ nest from 927 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Apparently, the building’s residents had the nest taken down without a thought to opening a dialog with the Central Park birders who have followed Pale Male’s every move for more than a decade. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed removal of the nest, calling it inactive, even though they should have known that red-tails, unlike many other bird species, may use the same nest year after year. Building residents and federal wildlife officials alike have dismissed their sneaky and callous deed by proclaiming that red-tails are adaptable—Pale Male and his mate, Lola, will find another nest site. What they’re actually proclaiming is their ignorance, because this is not about adaptability or about hawks in general. It is about a singular red-tailed hawk, his mates, and his offspring—the subjects of a superb film—whose story of survival in a hostile environment has inspired thousands. Pale Male is not only a red-tail; he is a symbol. And if the featherless bipeds that live in his building have any heart at all, his nest will be restored.
—Robert Winkler

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A message from Robert Winkler

Jeff Brush/Connecticut Post (used with permission)

If you enjoyed this page, I know you'll enjoy my critically acclaimed book, Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness (National Geographic), which expands on many of the short pieces I've posted here. Why do I write about birds? Because they represent the wild in all its glory. They're numerous, diverse, intelligent, talkative, and beautiful; their power of flight never ceases to amaze; and they're the most conspicuous class of wild animal—even in the suburb, they're just about everywhere. Whether you're a beginning or advanced birder, a fan of nature writing, a curious suburbanite, or a reader in search of that rare bird known as a good book, Going Wild could very well change how you view your world. So get your copy now, or buy one for your favorite birder or nature lover. Best deal on the Web: brand new, perfect copies $5 each (69% off) at National Geographic Books.

Red-tailed Hawk by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (year and medium unknown)
Text and photos Copyright © 2004-2008 Robert Winkler

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