URBAN FAUNA: Remembering NYC Icon, Pale Male
I don't even know who I stole this photograph of Pale Male from!
Hi Bestie!
Who could have guessed that so much of this newsletter would be dedicated to the natural world? Not me!
But New York City icon Pale Male passed last month, and we should celebrate him. (I scheduled this to send. It was in May. Today is July 1. What happened!!)
Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk named for his light coloring, hatched in 1990 and took up residence at 927 Fifth Avenue in 1993, the first hawk on record to nest on a Manhattan building. 927 Fifth Avenue is close to Central Park, where Pale Male first appeared in 1991. (He tried to nest in Central Park but was driven away by crows.) More than ten years later, hs nest was removed from the 12-story co-op by management. The co-op was reprimanded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (like bats in Florida, the brooding sites of raptors are protected). Pale Male returned with his partner Lola, and their reconstructed nest was removed again, and “This time, though, all hell broke loose.”
The sentiment alone thrills me. I love living here! (The City of Frederick used to feel this way about its ducks.) From the same Curbed article:
On one side of this avian-raptor showdown stood several of the building’s owner-shareholders, including, it was reported, members of the co-op board. They didn’t like that the hawks would bring takeout—bloodied rats, squirrels, smaller birds—back to the building for dinner. On the other stood several residents who liked their newest neighbors and wanted them to stay. Mary Tyler Moore, already well-established as an animal-rights activist, became the face of the latter group. Her upstairs neighbor Bruce Wasserstein — the Lazard chairman and banker who (full disclosure) had recently bought New York Magazine — was reportedly pro-bird as well. Richard Schwager, a plastic surgeon who lived in the building and kept his offices on the ground floor, argued that the hawks were doing their bit to keep the rodent population down. After the eviction, “both Pale Male and Lola have been observed circling their cornice,” reported the New York Times poignantly, “landing with bits of twigs and tree branches in what appeared to experts on the ground as a futile attempt to rebuild.”
Mary!! Tyler!! Moore!!
This wasn’t even her first involvement in Pale Male’s life. Because his previous mates had died, activists, including Mary Tyler Moore, advocated for the city to ban Avitrol in 2000. They were successful!
There were protests. People picketed. (Over a bird! We hate the rich!) Someone was arrested for harassment!
The building installed a 300-pound metal basket on a cornice in an effort to encourage Pale Male and Lola to return without ruining the building’s artifice. (And like, yeah, I kind of get it. I’d stoop sit more in the spring if I wasn’t concerned with getting pigeon poop on me.) Pale Male and Lola returned for a third time.
Lola disappeared in 2011; she flew off and never returned. She presumably died. (Before Lola there was Blue, Chocolate, and First Love, and after her, there were Ginger and Paula.)
When the building removed the nest the first time–with three unhatched eggs–they handed it off to Marie Winn, the naturalist, and journalist who named Pale Male. She ratted the building out to the Wildlife Service and was scolded for handling the nest. (We hate when someone is reprimanded for being part of an unwitting “here, hold this.”) Winn wrote Red Tails in Love, a bestseller in 1998.
There are also three children’s books, a feature-length documentary, and at least one country song. Pale Male is the mascot of an Upper East Side elementary school. I love that. Conan’s Late Night had a Pale Male puppet who played with Max Weinberg.
Pale Male sired a total of 23 offspring. Not seen consistently since 2015, some believed he had died and been replaced by a hawk of similar appearance. (He has that in common with Avril Lavigne and Andrew W.K.) Most hawks don’t live to 30, but Pale Male did. His death was definitively confirmed the day after his passing; he was found sick and grounded in Central Park and died while receiving supportive care.
Since 2005 a number of hawk couples have nested on buildings. A pair nested on Trump Tower. Tristan and Isolde took up residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (they do the Blessing of the Animals every October and Blessing of the Bicycles every spring) and are assumed to have passed, but fledged 28 offspring. In 2021 and 2022 the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Center hosted a pair of hawks who also had fledglings. (In 2021 there were ten known nests, half of which had hatchlings.)
When I worked out in Greenpoint twice a week I used to observe several hawks who nested in the park’s stadium lights. I found them captivating. (During a period of unemployment in Walkersville I used to look for hawks in Discovery when I went running. Now I look for them on the highways and from Amtrak windows.) One afternoon the hawks returned with squirrel meat for hatchlings. It was (I’m so sorry) awesome. This time of year you can hang out in Washington Square Park and experience the same, gross thing.
Hawks are one of the city’s many wild animals. Pale Male brought a raised consciousness to the city’s wild birds and was famous before social media or the famous birds that followed him (including, but not limited to, a number of owls, ducks, and the anhinga). It makes the Conan bit even better, because he used local news for a bit, instead of TikTok and Twitter. (Fallon could never.) You were a great bird, Pale Male. We’ll miss you.
Asterisks
You know what, don’t ask! We don’t live there.
I’m no horse girl, but Ginger is a solid name for any animal or Spice Girl.
I’m mentally ready for Beastenetics but I can’t physically rise for 8 a.m. class, sweet merciful crap I miss the misery.
Dribs and Drabs
I can’t find evidence that Frederick, MD loved its Culler Lake ducks. Just trust me. It was the ‘90s.
If you’re curious about birding in New York, New York Live had a segment last week. If you like waking up early I can point you to some groups. Or you can hang around Turtle Lake and look for the anhinga. (I desperately want to see this bird but I have not made my way to Prospect Park. My therapist, an accidental birder, is not as interested.)
I told you already I’ve been re-watching The Good Place, starting somewhere in season one (where my bestie left off on New Year's Day), and it's very appealing to sprawl on the couch and watch Eleanor and Jason struggle with ethics. If everyone is two Good Place characters, I'm one-half Jason and one-half Janet.
I watched the Anna Nicole Smith documentary on Netflix. It's not good! But the You're Wrong About episode is great. I also watched Shiny Happy People on Amazon. Two weeks later I have a lot of need for follow-up. I have questions that can never be answered!
And I took my Movie Pass ass to BAM last Friday and saw Past Lives, which I loved, because my favorite genre is actually romantic drama. (Fuck me up, Wong Kar-wai! Let’s get wasted and rage about Charles Boyer!)
I enjoyed this article about the world’s oldest trees (it’s either in America or in South America!) from last year. I want to see some bristlecone pines! (I want to go hiking and end up disappointed because there’s no glass to pick up.)
I want the McDonald’s Chicken Nugget Tetris console.
Speaking of China, I just learned about shamate and I love it.
I've saved all of the restaurants Sidney visits in episode 3, season 2 of The Bear. The way she orders at Kasama is pretty much how I order at Ciao Gloria. (Went for coffee and a treat Monday, got a slice of cake, a cookie, two croissants, and a coffee. The pistachio croissant is filled with cream!)
Always your friend,
Katherine
Sources
Bonanos, Christopher. “Pale Male, Fifth Avenue’s Beloved Hawk, Has Died.” Curbed, 17 May 2023, www.curbed.com/2023/05/pale-male-fifth-avenues-beloved-hawk-has-died.html.
Cabral, Sam. “Pale Male: Tributes Pour in for Celebrity Red-Tailed Hawk.” BBC News, 19 May 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65649227.
“Cathedral Hawk Nest History.” Cathedral Hawk Nest History, morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/2012/08/cathedral-hawk-nest-history.html. Accessed 27 June 2023.
DiGiacomo, Frank. “Ruffled Feathers on Fifth Avenue.” Vanity Fair, 5 July 2007, www.vanityfair.com/style/2005/07/palemale200507.
Kilgore, Ed, et al. “Pale Male Has Been Kind of a Slut since His Wife Died.” Intelligencer, 8 Apr. 2011, nymag.com/intelligencer/2011/04/pale_male_is_kind_of_a_slut.html.
Matthews, Karen. “Pale Male, Red-Tailed Hawk Who Nested above NYC’s Fifth Avenue for 30 Years, Dies at 33.” AP News, 17 May 2023, apnews.com/article/pale-male-hawk-new-york-city-c8b4816e885aee9ad5d0ad9522109099.
“Pale Male, Our School Mascot.” PS 6 School Newspaper, ps6newspaper.weebly.com/pale-male-our-school-mascot.html. Accessed 27 June 2023.
“Pale Male.” Wikipedia, 4 June 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Male.
“Red-Tailed Hawks in New York City: NYC Audubon.” Nycaudubon.Com, nycaudubon.org/our-work/conservation/urban-raptors/red-tailed-hawks-in-nyc. Accessed 26 June 2023.