Urban Hawks

The crowd that watched Pale Male, had an expression, “the regulars”. It meant the individuals who spent time day after day watching Pale Male, his mates and their offspring. This hard core group of “regulars” kept track of the hawks throughout the year. Over the years, this group become smaller as the nest became inactive and old timers passed away or moved out of New York.

Over the last three days, many of “the regulars” who are still with us, visited the hawk bench and remembered Pale Male. I’ve been by the bench twice and swapped stories and memories with some of the other “regulars”.

While we’ve been at the hawk bench, we’ve already seen Octavia, Pale Male’s last mate begin the next chapter in her life. On Wednesday, we saw her with other hawks. Octavia may already have found a new mate, possibly a young male. Hawks can quickly find a new mate and this might be the case here.

We’ll know for sure over the next few weeks.

It may be too late in the year for Octavia to nest this year. But it will be interesting to see if with a new mate, they rebuild the 927 Fifth Avenue nest or relocate it to a new location. We might not know until next year.

We also don’t know if Octavia is still able to have offspring. It was unclear if Pale Male was the reason they hadn’t brooded over the last few years. This is the second open question.

My hope is that we have offspring next year, using the old nest location. I suspect this is the hope of many of the other “regulars”.

Bobby Horvath, reported last night the news on the WINORR Facebook page the passing of Pale Male, the 33 year old Red-tailed Hawk who brought so much joy to New Yorkers over the years.

His nesting with multiple partners at 927 Fifth Avenue, gave thousands of New Yorker’s a front row seat to watch and study the behavior of an incredible species. He taught New Yorker’s that you didn’t need to go to a national park to watch nature, but that you just had to walk a few blocks.

A reporter left a voice mail for me this morning asking me what Pale Male’s legacy was, a very tough question.

I think his biggest legacy is that he taught New Yorkers, that despite man’s efforts to control the landscape of the city, nature still thrives here and needs to be respected and nurtured. For New York City birds, this means nests need to be protected, poisons controlled, buildings built with bird friendly designs, glass and lighting, and funding provided for Wildlife Rehabilitators.

Pale Male inspired hundreds of New Yorker’s to become conservationists, and to work to protect wildlife not only in rural areas, but in their own zip codes. That work lives on today, with vibrant organizations such as New York City Audubon, the Wild Bird Fund and WINORR.

If you want to remember Pale Male, respect his legacy by supporting the efforts of these organizations.