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Central Park Hawk Lola Goes Missing, Pale Male Moves On
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 18, 2011
Modified Jan 18, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 18, 2011
Modified Jan 18, 2011
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Lola and Pale Male, Manhattan's most famous red tailed hawks, have been living on a window at 927 Fifth Avenue since 2002. But recently Lola has vanished, and worried birders believe she has met the end of the natural cycle of life. Or she got poisoned. Lola was last seen on December 18th, and hawk expert John Blakeman told the Post, "It's pretty clear that Lola has met her demise, probably from a poisoned prey animal [such as a rat or pigeon] or by injury." However, Pale Male seems to have a new lady in his life.
It's not as if things were happy in the Fifth Avenue nest; Lola and Pale Male had not had a successful nest since 2004. Pale Male has also been on the city's hawk scene since the 90s and has had many partners. "It's astonishing how long he's been around," said naturalist Bradley Klein. Still, some birders aren't giving up on Lola.
Lincoln Karim wrote on Palemale.com, "I feel if I give up looking for her that I would have failed her, and yet I feel if I probe too much I may be dishonoring all the beauty she brought throughout the many years she spent with us. But I shall never stop looking and I will continue to hope that one day one of those bends in the branches or one of those clusters of leaves will turn out to be the return of my beautiful friend Lola." In the meantime, here's a video of Pale Male's cute new mate, thought to be a cradle-robbing four years old and hanging out at one of Lola's favorite spots on 79th Street and 5th Avenue.
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central park hawks
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pale male
red-tailed hawk
Jaya Saxena
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