Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times Pale Male at 927 Fifth Avenue at 74th Street in Manhattan. Hawks Inspect Renovation By JENNIFER 8. LEE Published: December 29, 2004 hree weeks after they were evicted from their home of 11 years on Fifth Avenue, two famed red-tailed hawks returned to their old perch above Central Park yesterday to survey the elegant stainless steel structure that was installed so that they might rebuild their nest. The hawks, Pale Male and Lola, who attracted worldwide attention during their tussle with the co-op board at 927 Fifth Avenue, both landed at least twice on the arched 12th-floor cornice - much to the delight of fervent bird-watchers. While the lacy metal cradle was installed last Thursday, the scaffolding that was used to put it in place remained, blocking the hawks from landing. The scaffolding was not removed until about 10:30 yesterday morning. About 45 minutes later, Pale Male and Lola arrived and stayed between 5 and 10 minutes, said Frederic Lilien, a Belgian cinematographer who flew in after hearing about the controversy and now goes to Central Park daily to observe Pale Male and Lola. "You could really see they were checking it out," said Mr. Lilien, who produced an hourlong documentary on Pale Male. The birds left but returned hours later: first Lola by herself. Then Pale Male by himself. "It was like a belated Christmas gift," said Amanda Tree, a Brooklyn actress and singer-songwriter who had waited, bundled up with wool hat and rainbow scarf, since 9 a.m. to see the hawks. "You couldn't imagine receiving anything nicer. It makes me happier than my first Barbie doll." It remains to be seen if the hawks will rebuild their nest - which had stretched to eight feet wide. They have several weeks to rebuild before Lola is ready to lay her eggs, typically at the beginning of March. A handful of twigs were tossed into the new cradle when it was installed. Pale Male and Lola seem attached to the spot and have also tried to take twigs to the cornice after the nest was removed. But because the three-inch pigeon spikes that anchored the twigs had also been removed, their efforts were unavailing. The pigeon spikes had been stored in the basement and were later reinstalled with the cradle. The public battle over the hawks began when Richard Cohen, the chairman of the co-op board and the husband of Paula Zahn, decided to remove the nest, citing safety and privacy concerns. The eviction ignited a worldwide furor, including protests from two of the building's most prominent residents: Mary Tyler Moore and Bruce Wasserstein, the Wall Street magnate. Daily demonstrations spurred the co-op board to negotiate with environmental advocates, landmark preservationists and government officials, leading to the decision to install a cradle. Raffael Juth, the project manager with Dan Ionescu Architects who oversaw the installation, said yesterday that the firm was pleased with the hawks' return. "It's very exciting because there was a lot of pressure on us," he said. "We felt like we came through with everyone else involved." =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================