December 2004

Pale Male: Bring Back the Nest! Support Pale Male! Help Bring Back the Nest! When: Tomorrow Morning Date: Monday, Dec. 13th Where: 6th Ave., btwn. 50 & 51 Sts., outside CNN Time Life Studios Time: 7AM - 10AM Gathering at 74th Street & 5th Ave: Saturday Dec 11 - Noon until The Nest is Back! Sunday Dec 12 - Noon until The Nest is Back! Next Week - 4:30 Until The Nest is Back! Watch the nature documentary Pale Male on Thirteen/WNET New York CHANNEL 13. Showtimes: Tuesday Dec. 14th, 8pm Sunday Dec. 19th, 8pm We want a Miracle On 74th Street Thank you for all the mail that I'm receiving. I'm reading as many as I can and trying to answer as many as I can also. I hate using copy & paste replies so please don't think I am not hearing from you. You are keeping my spirits up and also some of you are giving very constructive criticism which I need and really do appreciate. Lincoln Richard Cohen Capital Properties 527 Madison Avenue (212) 980-0090 Saturday December 11, 04 At 74th Street & Fifth Avenue today Pale Male visited us flying before his nest and over our heads. Lola perched on the right corner of the Woody building's watertower and I had her up on the video display live for over an hour. They are still here. They need their nest. I see no signs of the nest geting replaced. I'm hearing that negotiations are favourable, but I'm not seeing a truck parked outside. I'm not seeing ropes in place to hoist the platform up to the roof. Frederic Lilien just flew in from Belgium to show his support. I want to say welcome and thank you to the woman who flew in from San Francisco for this also (I'll try to find her name) Thanks for everyone's support. Lets keep focus and not let them compromise Pale Male's original nest. It must be back in its original state. No box on the roof! No alternative nest site! Remember thousands of Red Tail Hawks lived on Manhattan for hundreds and hundreds of years before they were chased out by man. One is back, we must respect him! Hail Pale Male! _________________________________________________________ December 11, 2004 Co-op Board 927 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10021 Dear Sirs/Madams: I am a Boston resident with ties to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. My grandparents moved to New York as immigrants in the early 1900's where they built successful real estate and manufacturing businesses. I love New York and especially the Upper East Side and its quality of life. Many of my relatives have lived their entire lives in NYC in an elite and protected environment, and therefore developed some very different views of life. I've visited my Aunt many times on 72nd Street when she has been aghast that I would leave her home to go out in the rain. None of my relatives had pets and saw them as messy and a nuisance. My father was the black sheep of the family who loved nature and made his adult life outside of the city. We always had pets and an interest in wildlife. In this past week, you have seen that your views are very much the minority with people around the world and I hope that you can open up your hearts and be sensitive to why many people are shocked and upset about the removal of Pale Male's nest. This is not "PETA gone crazy", but a wonderful phenomenon in NYC. These birds have become somewhat of ambassadors to Central Park. For the privileged of your building, why can you not live with this very rare and incredibly beautiful situation? How you could expect to remove the nest in the manner in which it was done without any backlash defies common sense. Pale Male is world-renowned and this phenomenon is important to many naturalists. I've seen the documentary twice and was so deeply touched by it that I spread the word to my friends and co-workers. I hope that you will consider that in the best interest of the situation, you should allow the hawks to rebuild directly on the same ledge on the same site where the nest was removed and prepare that site as it was when they moved in 11 years ago. Would you not be able to use some of the money from the Central Park Conservancy Perimeter Association to clean and maintain any portions of your property associated with the hawk's nest? Since this is a direct draw of people to the perimeter of the Park, it makes sense to have the association or even the Fish and Wildlife Service or National Audubon pitch in with funding now that you are placed in this very public and angry arena. I would be happy to directly contribute funds to any organization that would aid in protecting and maintaining the area around the nest. Many thanks for reading my letter and good luck to you all. Please do the right thing. Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen cc: NYC National Audubon Society Lincoln Karim ________________________________________________________ Despite the nasty, thoughtless human beings behind the destruction of Pale Male & Lola's nest. The two birds perched very close to their nest today. Pale Male sat on Linda #1 and Linda #6 for almost two hours breaking only once to have lunch. He settled directly after in a tree just 50 feet or so away from the wall at 74th Street & 5th Ave and offered a great photo op to the press photographers that were anxiously waiting for him. From where he perched in the tree most of the building's occupants could have seen him. Lola stood on top of the right 'H' balcony on Woody's building and despite the rain and poor light she still displayed the most beautiful chocolate brown plumage and crisp crimson tail. There are two young boys (5-6 years old) that live on the 3rd floor of 927 Fifth Ave who sit all evening in the bay of the middle window and wave to me. These boys always visit the scope with their nanny and absolutely adore the birds. Today the older one came downstairs to collect a DVD of Frederic Lilien's Pale Male as I offered it to him from across the street. This building has several children who are all so sweet and innocent and who I know, if they are anything like these two boys, will never grow up to be like their parents. Also tonight at the vigil there were at least a dozen children who came with their own made up signs to support Pale Male. ________________________________________________________ I thought I could run away from the wanton cruelty I left in Trinidad so many years ago. My fellow countrymen for example would intercept the gigantic leatherback turtles as they came up the beach to lay their eggs and chop off their fins. The creatures were left immobilized to die the slowest most painful deaths as the men ran off with their catch to make soups further down the beach. If we were to balance the playing field in the above case with the cruelty that was done to Pale Male on December 7th; that is we put a handicap on the ignorance and the savageness of the urchins on that blood soaked beach in Trinidad against the affluent men and women in that posh building on Fifth avenue. Then I find myself almost ready to forgive the former. _________________________________________________________ Images For Press Use (higher resolution) 5 Images total All images on this site (www.palemale.com) can be used freely by anyone helping to get Pale Male his nest back. Sign Petition at NYC Audubon! Visit National Audubon Mary Tyler Moore is supporting us...We’re Gonna Make It After All! The Brown Harris Stevens person responsibe for this is: Les Vance BHS Lex Ave NY What we need: To return the infrastructure and original materials to Pale Male’s 12 year old nest site; The exact type of non-lethal Pigeon Spikes must be reinstalled around and onto the curved area of the original nest site in its original manner. An equivalent amount of twigs (preferably the original material which must be in the possession of The Fish & Wildlife Services since their enforcement agent* was at the scene of this crime and informed of the importance of taking possession of the stolen twigs) must be replaced on the arch and secured firmly and woven into these spikes. The nest must be left in a wholesome state similar to its condition prior to its evil destruction. *Fish & Wildlife claims that they do not have the original twigs. I may be wrong because while the workers were still on the premises an official in green uniform with a gold shoulder emblem showed up. EJ McAdams and I beseeched him to secure the nest material. He assured us he would. I assumed he was from Fish & Wildlife. F&W claims they do not wear uniforms. They could not tell me who that person was. Options: 1. Since the owners of 927 Fifth Avenue detest the unsightly bird droppings on their awning, they may install, below the nest, any sort of contraption to catch the birds’ excrement--may I suggest one of Cristo and Jeanne-Claude’s saffron curtains which will become available at the end of February (in time for the fresh spring droppings) after their Central Park charade? 2. The building management can remove or obliterate the two stone figures of eagles that adorn the front of their building since they’ve demonstrated such a dislike for raptors. Several millionaires called me up today to find out if I knew of any vacant floors at 927 5th Avenue. Sorry Ladies & Gentlemen they are all full it seems, except for a few square feet of property just below the roof that only recently became available. This space has no heat, no plumbing, no mailbox, no WC and it's a 12 story 'fly up'. Excellent unobstructed views of Central Park however. If you would like to call these tenants to get an idea of when they may become vacant please go ahead and disappoint yourselves all you want: 927 Fifth Ave Corp (212) 737-4980 Elizabeth Ainslie (212) 535-0721 Norma Bacilious MD (212) 737-9200 Christopher Chia M (212) 517-6767 Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Assoc. (212) 737-6600 Maurits Edersheim 212) 861-1952 JH Filenbaum (212) 249-0085 Judith Hernstadt (212) 249-0085 Thomas McGovern MD (212) 772-7411 Marc Rowan (212) 794-1755 Robert Schwager MD (212) 249-7900 Smooth Touch (212) 744-0055 Tom Walker (646)422-1055 Harold Winters (12th Fl) (212) 988-1411 Maybe CNN would like to hear about this story: CNN - (212) 275-7800 CNN - (212)275-8161 (The Paula Zahn Show) Call/write your elected officials: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg City Hall New York, NY 10007 Dial 311 or 212-NEW-YORK http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html Hillary Clinton 476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-4451 http://clinton.senate.gov/email_form.html Charles Schumer 313 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-6542 schumer.senate.gov/webform.html Liz Kreuger (26th District) 302 Legislative Office Building Albany, New York 12247 (518) 455-2297 lkrueger@senate.state.ny.us Jonathan L. Bing (73rd Assembly District) 360 E. 57th Street Mezzanine Level New York, NY 10022 (212) 605-0937 Email Jonathan Bing Thank you for all for the letters of concern. I'll reply to each one of you. Wednesday Dec 8, 2004 I cannot and will not tell you about interpretations of law and all about amendments and the like because I do not understand that kind of stuff. What I can tell you is that right now there are two creatures out there in Central Park sleeping in a tree which they choose tonight after a very trying day. A day which experiences neither had any other day in their life. Were they distressed today? I cannot say they were, in the human way anyway. What I saw this morning was Pale Male surfing on the light wind that rushed from the busy Fifth Avenue up along the solid sculptured walls of those majestic Upper Eastside buildings. He surfed and soared and flapped once in a while, and then he�ll disappear behind this building, then that tree, only to reappear from somewhere that no one was even looking. Presently he�s doing a dive, then there�he�s levitating on an upward draft�but no that�s not him�too dark�it must be Lola. Lola it is. Bearing a twig in her beak they fly in a small circle. Your eyes are compelled to follow them and you feel an injustice to have to fix your eyes on only one for fear you loose them both. And Pale Male flies with his confidence and his valor slightly upstream of his large broad wings and he dives and is lost behind a tall European Linden even if it is bare of all it leaves. You search for him to emerge again because your thirst for his beautiful gliding has not been satisfied for the moment, and you see him appear much higher that you anticipated behind a tree that you couldn�t imagine and he carries in his beak a large twig, forked on the one side and longer on the other which makes you believe it not balanced, but balanced it is. He carries the large appendage with little effort. But where does he carry such a twig? He scrapes close to the buildings and gains his altitude. He has done this so many thousands of times before. He knows where every little draft shoots up, knows where it�s too thin and warrants a wholesome flap. He knows where and when to extend his primaries and when to brake and fold. Nothing�s different today except for the landing. Something�s amiss. It�s harder that he calculated. It does not have the spring and the dampened rest that his weary talons have grown to expect. Something is amiss indeed, so he stands on the bare cold arch and places his forked twig under his foot and stares out at the Park and finds Lola, whom still circling, has decided to postpone her strange landing. Does he panic? There is no such thing for him. The cushioning on the nest must be amended. More twigs he�ll have to harvest and he sets off without delay. But he looks this way and then that, and wonders�something is surely amiss for the new twigs will not stay. Wednesday Dec 8, 2004 Meanwhile all today Pale Male and Lola can be seen flying around in small circles and standing on their bare nest site with meagre twigs in their mouth ready to repair. However the very important spikes are missing and the twigs won't hold. Who will tell these innocent animals what our fellow humans has done to them? Meanwhile limosines and towncars keep pulling up in front of 927 Fifth Avenue where the home owners go and sleep snuggly in their warm full floor dwellings. Please show your support by gathering with fellow Pale Male lovers at the 74th Street & 5th Avenue. Thanks, Lincoln December 8, 04 Pale Male: Bring Back the Nest! Send Paula Zahn more feedback It is working! It's hitting home! Gathering at 74th Street & 5th Ave: Mon-Fri this week - 4:30 Until The Nest is Back! You all probably know much more that I about the outcome of the meeting. You listen to the news, read the papers, watch TV and you can be informed of that. My report is from the old nest site and I can tell you that the meeting did not bring back the nest. As far as I am concerned nothing fruitful happened. Politicians met politicians and our two birds are still without their nest. A few pieces of wire and some screws and anchors are all that it'll take, along with a window washing rig. Although I hold a great deal of respect for the 5 people that met with the Co-op, they were not able to deliver the urgency of Pale Male's predicament Yesterday a little 4 year old girl showed me a sign she made for the vigil. She used a picture that I gave her earlier this year. I knelt down beside her to talk to her and she said "Clinton (I know she meant Lincoln) is the mommy hawk and the daddy hawk going to have their nest so they could have babies...?" I looked at her firmly and smiled when I said "Of course they will and do you why? Because you made a pretty sign like this. Once they see this sign those people are sure to put Pale Male's nest back" I stood up and brushed her hair back and thought of the whole scenario. Why didn't I tell her 'I hope so' or something. Little kids never forget stuff like that. Then the crowd began chanting and drowned out even my thoughts, but through the noise I could still hear her tiny voice crying "Put back the nest! Put back the nest!" Watch the nature documentary Pale Male on Thirteen/WNET New York CHANNEL 13. Showtimes: Tuesday Dec. 14th, 8pm Saturday Dec. 18th, 7pm We want a Miracle On 74th Street Thank you for all the mail that I'm receiving. I'm reading as many as I can and trying to answer as many as I can also. I hate using copy & paste replies so please don't think I am not hearing from you. You are keeping my spirits up and also some of you are giving very constructive criticism which I need and really do appreciate. Lincoln Richard Cohen Capital Properties 527 Madison Avenue New York NY 10022 (212) 980-0090 Mr. Cohen, Are thousands of people calling and writing you to tell you that they're behind you 100% and that they support your decision? Sunday December 12, 04 This morning on my walk over to 74th Street and Fifth Avenue I took all the usual turns from Broadway over to the Eastside. The scope cart was loaded with extra photographic posters etc, but it made little difference in the carts mobility. I scanned the trees at Central Park West and 69th Street for another sighting of Pale Male�s baby from years ago, the day before he flew into a tree close to the 69th Street entrance and perched for a few minutes. There were no new sightings to be had. I pushed along through the Park and greeted my usual stares of awe at the telescope with the usual niceties and �no it�s not a spotlight� and �no I�m not making a movie�. I scanned the sky as I decended the path at the West Drive and was assured there were no signs of rain, and by all indications a reasonably sunny day albeit cold was in store. I saw the Model Sailboat Pond from the top of the incline at The Bethesda Fountain and it looked so empty, not just the absence of water and the absence of leaves on the variety of tall trees leading down the path, but the absence of our nest seem to cast a heart-wrenching emptiness over the entire east side of the park. I moistened my lips�painfully chapped, swallowed and veered the telescope to the right following the natural curve of the roadway. I was no longer going to set up the equipment at the pond and that felt strange. I am not to look forward to relishing the excited little faces of children watching the video monitor and seeing Pale Male or Lola�s face on it. The telescope had now begun to serve a new purpose�an object to mark the ground where voices were to gather to sound their fury against the unnatural inhabitants of a twelve story cliff where a natural resident was ruthlessly expelled. The spot was empty when I got there except for a few park workers blowing fallen leaves on the sidewalk into small manageable heaps. The leaves were wet from the last two days of steady rain, but the job of removing them didn�t appear to be any more burdensome. The body heat from my brisk cross-park walk quickly succumbed to the seasonable coldness so I put on one more layer of upper body clothing and waited for the park workers to complete their job. As I turned to face the stone cliff across the avenue a different type of coldness cut through me, but there was no jacket to shield this kind of chill. I listened to my breath; it was quiet, the traffic was sparse and irregular. Across the street several cars were parked and the sidewalk was immaculate. The small hedge in the front of the building was neatly manicured, the wrought iron fence freshly painted, and the green fabric awning pulled tight on its brass piped framework�it was spotless. I arranged the telescope against the short park wall then began a quick survey of all Pale Male�s favorite perches. Looking at the very first spot I sought, Linda #1, I immediately made out the soft white belly and the solemn poised irregularity on the curved railing almost to the top of the cliff located less than a block south from where I was standing. Pale Male�s feathers ruffled in the steady wind that swept down the avenue. Through my binoculars I saw him glance down at the traffic below him that had progressively increased. He then began to gaze at the park and before long he was off in a steep dive. I was somewhat comforted with his behavior. He was acting like a bird that was still home. Pale Male & Lola flew over us many times today. The 'vigil' was extremely energetic and the support outstanding. Pale Male stood several times on Linda #1 & Linda #3. At one point while the couple flew in circles above they were joined by a third hawk--their baby from this spring who appears to be hanging around to the very end of his time limit. Tomorrow (Monday) there is supposed to be a meeting with 5 people (NYC Audubon, National Audubon, Central Park). lets hope for the best. But lets realize that the agenda here is simple. Is the nest going to be back in it's original state? Do they still have the twigs & wire deterrents that held the twigs in place? If not the facade is loaded with the same type of wire deterrents. How were they arranged. The same crew that removed them should be involved in placing them back. Saturday December 11, 04 At 74th Street & Fifth Avenue today Pale Male visited us flying before his nest and over our heads. Lola perched on the right corner of the Woody building's watertower and I had her up on the video display live for over an hour. They are still here. They need their nest. I see no signs of the nest geting replaced. I'm hearing that negotiations are favourable, but I'm not seeing a truck parked outside. I'm not seeing ropes in place to hoist the platform up to the roof. Frederic Lilien just flew in from Belgium to show his support. I want to say welcome and thank you to Regina Phelps who flew in from San Francisco for this also Thanks for everyone's support. Lets keep focus and not let them compromise Pale Male's original nest. It must be back in its original state. No box on the roof! No alternative nest site! Remember thousands of Red Tail Hawks lived on Manhattan for hundreds and hundreds of years before they were chased out by man. One is back, we must respect him! Hail Pale Male! ______________________________________________________ (I?m not sure of the author but I trust the content to be true) The scaffolding was down by 11:30 this morning, as Ed Zimmerman promised yesterday. Aimee, Yigal, Rebekah, Donna & Sam, and a handful of other die-hard Pale Male supporters were across the street from 927 by the time I got there. Noreen McKenna of Brown Harris Stevens (which manages the building) and engineer James McCosker (more on him later) had been there earlier. Three guys from Preferred Restoration were beginning the work of bringing the platform to the ground. Poor freezing Frederic was out there filming, as he has been every day. It was cold. Very, very cold. The two Preferred workmen had to shovel some ice off the roof to get to the platform. It's more hazardous up there than I knew: there's no raised barrier on the edge of the roof at all--it's just flat, right out to the edge. They have to crawl out there on their stomachs, then climb over that large lip of stonework that juts out horizontally from the top of the building. The work last week, and this morning, would have been much easier and less dangerous for them if they had been permitted to reach the platform by going through one of the residents' apartments. They had submitted this request through Hugo the super, but the answer came back no. I am guessing they didn't ask Mary Tyler Moore, who surely would have allowed them to use her window. We learned that the "engineer inspection" story is a crock. Building engineer James McCosker did not inspect the work and said he never needed to. All of us, including Thomas Berry (who built the new nest support) was told on Thursday that the platform needed to remain up until Monday so that the building engineer could make an inspection of the work. When the building refused to let anyone in Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to remove the scaffolding or at least bring in the flapping banner and netting, they claimed no one could go up until the engineer did the inspection. We will be looking into this further. As the scaffolding was slowly lowered down the building's facade, Mary Tyler Moore and her husband, Dr. Levine, waved and gave the peace sign from their 8th-floor window. The platform was rolled into the service-entrance area on the north side of the building after the banner and netting were removed. The platform will be back up on the north side of the building tomorrow to patch a little stonework, but this is unrelated to the hawks and will be nowhere near the nest. Still, we'll have someone keep an eye on it. We stood on the corner, we three Kindly Ones, watching until the last cable and rope were pulled up and put away. By this time our feet and hands were completely numb, which I imagine is what put us in mind of the Donner party (about whom we chatted to pass the time). Aimee reports that Pale Male and Lola flew onto their new perch and sat there at noon, about a half hour after the scaffolding was removed! I hope Frederic got footage. Despite the nasty, thoughtless human beings behind the destruction of Pale Male & Lola's nest. The two birds perched very close to their nest today. Pale Male sat on Linda #1 and Linda #6 for almost two hours breaking only once to have lunch. He settled directly after in a tree just 50 feet or so away from the wall at 74th Street & 5th Ave and offered a great photo op to the press photographers that were anxiously waiting for him. From where he perched in the tree most of the building's occupants could have seen him. Lola stood on top of the right 'H' balcony on Woody's building and despite the rain and poor light she still displayed the most beautiful chocolate brown plumage and crisp crimson tail. There are two young boys (5-6 years old) that live on the 3rd floor of 927 Fifth Ave who sit all evening in the bay of the middle window and wave to me. These boys always visit the scope with their nanny and absolutely adore the birds. Today the older one came downstairs to collect a DVD of Frederic Lilien's Pale Male as I offered it to him from across the street. This building has several children who are all so sweet and innocent and who I know, if they are anything like these two boys, will never grow up to be like their parents. Also tonight at the vigil there were at least a dozen children who came with their own made up signs to support Pale Male. ________________________________________________________ I thought I could run away from the wanton cruelty I left in Trinidad so many years ago. My fellow countrymen for example would intercept the gigantic leatherback turtles as they came up the beach to lay their eggs and chop off their fins. The creatures were left immobilized to die the slowest most painful deaths as the men ran off with their catch to make soups further down the beach. If we were to balance the playing field in the above case with the cruelty that was done to Pale Male on December 7th; that is we put a handicap on the ignorance and the savageness of the urchins on that blood soaked beach in Trinidad against the affluent men and women in that posh building on Fifth avenue. Then I find myself almost ready to forgive the former. _________________________________________________________ Images For Press Use (higher resolution) 5 Images total All images on this site (www.palemale.com) can be used freely by anyone helping to get Pale Male his nest back. Sign Petition at NYC Audubon! Visit National Audubon Mary Tyler Moore is supporting us...We�re Gonna Make It After All! The Brown Harris Stevens person responsibe for this is: Les Vance BHS Lex Ave NY What we need: To return the infrastructure and original materials to Pale Male�s 12 year old nest site; The exact type of non-lethal Pigeon Spikes must be reinstalled around and onto the curved area of the original nest site in its original manner. An equivalent amount of twigs (preferably the original material which must be in the possession of The Fish & Wildlife Services since their enforcement agent* was at the scene of this crime and informed of the importance of taking possession of the stolen twigs) must be replaced on the arch and secured firmly and woven into these spikes. The nest must be left in a wholesome state similar to its condition prior to its evil destruction. *Fish & Wildlife claims that they do not have the original twigs. I may be wrong because while the workers were still on the premises an official in green uniform with a gold shoulder emblem showed up. EJ McAdams and I beseeched him to secure the nest material. He assured us he would. I assumed he was from Fish & Wildlife. F&W claims they do not wear uniforms. They could not tell me who that person was.