Pale Male and Lola have won their right to nest on a 12th floor cornice in New York, and Mary Tyler Moore has done more for her public image in the last week than for many years.
PM & L are two red-tailed hawks that live in NYC, preying on rats and pigeons in Central Park. MTM lives in the building co-op that the pair nest on.
Many years ago, the architect decided that to deter pigeons from nesting on the building they should install a network of steel spikes. The spikes deterred pigeons but attracted the pair of hawks, who have nested among the spikes on the building for 11 years.
Well, last week the building owner got fed up with the pigeon and rat carcasses littering the street under the nest and removed the spikes, and the nest.
BIG mistake. An instant protest formed on the street below. People holding up signs saying "Honk If You Love Hawks" and "REPENT" (seriously). And when I read that "The co-op is also home to some of the biggest names in New York society" the outcome was really a foregone conclusion.
After a week of protest and daily articles in the New York Times and meetings with bird-lovers and lawyers and architects, the co-op has agreed to reinstall the spikes as a matter of urgency. And to provide a rail underneath to stop debris falling to the sidewalk. And to not move the nest, at all, even when this breeding season is over.
Hawks 1, Co-Op 0, but celebrity was the real winner on the day.
Excellent! I saw the story before when they had just been removed. I'd think you'd want a hawk nesting on the side of your building?!?!
Posted by: Emba at December 16, 2004 01:02 PMeee
jenny I've lost yr ph # and I've lost your email that gave me your ph # and now everything is looking so very very difficult.
sorry to hear about the back-to-chch blues. email me if you can sometime.
Hawks are pretty cool - and hell, if you lived in a tower block, wouldn't you be pleased for it livening up the view? But, I can see the point about the dismembered birds and rats on the pavement outside your multi-million-dollar home. Just from the unpleasantness point of view - imagine your neighbours cat dumping rabbit carcasses on your porch or something!
hopefully the rail idea will solve it to everyone's satisfaction. Particularly the hawks' :)
Posted by: phreq at December 17, 2004 05:50 AMOh pish - if hawks can live with our buildings, we can live with their dismembered rats etc. :-)
Posted by: Emba at December 17, 2004 08:17 AMThanks
Posted by: Online Home Loans at November 19, 2005 10:42 PM