Do you remember the excitement a few years ago about a pair of red-tailed hawks named Pale Male and Lola who were found nesting on a high-rise in Manhattan? It was a bit of a cause celebre for a while as various famous people like Mary Tyler Moore, who lived in the building where the hawks were nesting, raised a fuss about letting them stay.
Pale Male has apparently lived in Manhattan since at least 1993, and now, 16 years later, he and Lola still fly over Central Park hunting for prey. This website posts tons of pictures of the birds as they are sighted all over the Upper East Side, and the most recent pictures, from February 15, are really fabulous. The hawks have bred several broods of chicks, and now there are lots of red-tailed hawks to be seen in New York City. Urban Hawks is another blog devoted to detailing the lives of the assorted raptors and other critters one can find living in Central Park and environs.
Since we here in Massachusetts simply can’t stand to be outdone by New York, I think its only fair to note that there is a red-tailed hawk that lives in Boston Common, too. I have actually SEEN this hawk up close and personal. One chilly autumn day in 2007, we were in the playground in the Common, over by Frog Pond, and instead of watching Charlotte climbing on the equipment, I was just looking around the park. Suddenly, I heard this otherworldly WHOOOOOOSH!! a few feet from my head, and this enormous hawk swooped out of nowhere, trying to pounce on a clueless squirrel. The squirrel was apparently not so clueless, as he zoomed up a nearby tree before the hawk could get him, and the bird had to make a very abrupt landing on the dirt. He stood there for a good minute or so, readjusting his feathers as if to say “I meant to do that”, and checking things out quite calmly. I cursed myself for not having a camera with me, because I have never been so close to a wild raptor like that. He didn’t fly off immediately, even as people started to notice him. Finally, when he was good and ready, he flapped his massive wings and flew away just a couple of feet off the ground, no doubt hoping to spot a pigeon or another squirrel along the way.
