Update on the Pale Male&Lola Fieldnotes

Pale Male and Lola on the Nest yesterday, 5/11/05
Photo by LINCOLN KARIM


Donna's daily Field Notes are still available on PaleMale.com. I'm no longer posting them, as I told Donna, because the thought of Pale Male & Lola continuing to sit and sit makes me a bit sad. Donna sent me a letter today telling her feelings about still going every day and taking notes on the comings and goings from the nest:


From Donna Browne:

Marie,

I realized I'm no longer sad at the Bench, in the previous day-to-day way. I'm sad about the bigger picture, when it comes to mind, as in people being so self-absorbed and ignorant as to rip the nest down in the first place,
but that isn't everpresent by any means.

Now I watch for the gradual process of how nature will ease the birds away from the nest. The little daily steps that I know will happen and are happening but which I can't identify yet. But next time, with some other pair, (I expect PM and L will do just fine with hatches in the future.) I WILL know the steps and know that they are small, incremental, with no jarring shocks, at least for the hawks. It is not the same this year for them as when the eyasses died in 2002.

Now I think about the fair easy summer Pale Male and Lola will have once they leave the nest. Hunting only when hungry, bathing in Azalea Pond, spreading their shiny new feathers to the sun, all fat, healthy, and primed for the winter. Then in December, just like last year, Pale Male will think, time to put a twig or two on the nest. A few more in January, and the circle starts again with twigs and dancing on Fifth Avenue.

Donna