Checking out the hawk competition

Cal Vornberger writes:

Attached is a photo I took yesterday during the rehearsal for the "Falconry Extravaganza" that's being presented today in the park. While the people from South Carolina were exercising the captive birds the Red-tailed Hawk in the photo came down and sat on one of their perches eyeing the newcomers.
The redtail sat there for 2-3 minutes before flying up into a nearby tree. He stayed  around the entire afternoon occasionally flying overhead and peering down at the activities. He is quite pale and quite likely a Pale Male offspring.

PS from Marie

Since the Falconry Extravaganza [the 8th annual one] is being held at the East Meadow -- around 5th Avenue and 97th Street, it's highly likely that the bird in the photo above is the one we call Pale Male III.   For more than 3 years he and his mate had been trying unsuccessfully to nest on a high ledge on nearby Mt. Sinai Hospital [Fifth and 99th]. Then two years ago the pair had a successful but unpublicised nest in a tree just west of the East Meadow. No sign of a nest last year or this year, however. Pale Male III closely resembles Junior, the successful Trump-Parc paterfamilias. Since both Junior and Three have been trying to build nests on buildings at the periphery of Central Park  from about the time the first of Male Male's broods reached breeding maturity -- 1998 or 1999 -- we consider it not unlikely that they are offspring of the 5th Avenue nest.