Pale Male and Lola: Are they moving to the Beresford?

The Beresford --view from Park, facing west

The Beresford, from the south,
view including the American Museum of Natural History
the tower at right is the south-east tower

Yesterday at about 8:15 pm on the last evening of spring, a few feet east of the park entrance at 81st Street --it is called Hunter's Gate, according to official Central Park nomenclature going back to the 19th century-- I saw a pair of hawks at the top of the Beresford. One was lighter than the other, and word has it that they are none other than our celebrity hawks Pale Male and Lola. Since the hawkwatchers who have reported seeing this pair fly from the Beresford to Pale Male and Lola's favorite perch on the Oreo Bldg on 79th and Fifth, are reliable informants, I assume that the pair I saw were, indeed,. Pale Male and Lola. I can't say I could make that identification myself because it was nearing sunset and the light was fading rapidly. The horizon was glowing with little pinkish, rapidly reddening clouds that very much resembled the picture labeled Altocumulus stratiformis on my favorite 37 cent postage stamps, the series called Cloudscapes.

The Beresford, a three-towered landmark of Central Park West designed by architect Emery Roth and completed in 1929, just before the stock-market crash, is one of the three spectacular landmark buildings of Central Park West, the other two being the Dakota on 72nd St. and the twin-towered San Remo between 74th and 75th St. For those thrilled by Vanity Fair-type dishery, the apartment near where the hawk pair is hanging out these days "was occupied for a while by Mike Nichols, the director, and, at another time, by Helen Gurley Brown, the magazine editor, and her husband, David Brown, the producer. Other residents have included Isaac Stern, the violinist, Beverly Sills, the opera singer, and columnist Leonard Lyons." according to The City Review's Upper West Side Book.


As I was watching, each of the pair took off, circled, and returned to various spots on the ornate southern-facing facade as well as the east-facing facade of the south tower. At one point a feisty little kestrel came by and dive-bombed Lola -- she is at least twice the little falcon's size. She didn't fight back, but after a while simply took off again in an easterly direction. Pale Male too was last seen heading east. On a ledge below the ornate decoration on the southern facade I could see an accumulation of something -- hard to see what in the failing light. But I'd imagine that's where they have deposited the sticks they've been seen bringing up there.

My own guess is that this is NOT going to be a new nest site. I've seen our Fifth Avenue hawks bringing sticks to various window ledges on Woody's building and others during the last decade, but they've always remained faithful to their 927 Fifth nest site. John Blakeman agrees. Here is his comment on the news that PM and Lola have been bringing sticks to the Beresford:

What's this about Pale Male Sr. and Lola checking out new nest digs? Right now, if I had to bet (and I've bet several times on this pair, and lost every time), I'd still keep paying the rent at 927. Red-tails are famous for having two or three alternative, nearby nests. In wild, rural pairs, as with most of my Ohio birds, the hawks alternate from year to year between nests. This pair's carrying new sticks to another potential nest site doesn't mean much right now. Nest sites are selected in winter, not late spring or summer. This stick-carrying activity is probably another "displacement" behavior, where the birds have the hormones and memories to be feeding eyasses right now. But there aren't any at 927, so they feel compelled to do something parental, and the only thing available is to mess around with a new nest. Let's see how this develops. Mark down the new stick piles and see if either bird frequents them in November or December. If so, things could get interesting. For now, because the pair has stayed at 927 through everything, I'm betting they will return next winter. But again, these birds have questioned my raptorial wisdom time and again.