Pale Male Spots Bald Eagle Soaring Above Manhattan, Fish In Talons - ENN

[hatrack]

NEW YORK — Pale Male, the famed red-tailed hawk of Central Park, was perched on the 22nd floor of the swank Beresford apartment building on Wednesday when the national emblem of the United States soared past, carrying a large fish in its talons.

"Pale Male usually sits there sort of relaxed, but he sat up straight when he saw the bald eagle," said Lincoln Karim, the man who made Pale Male and his mate Lola famous with his extensive photographic record of the romantic raptors raising fledglings in their high-rise aerie on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

Karim, doing his usual morning routine of photographing Pale Male, had the hawk in his viewfinder when the bird suddenly went to attention. "I looked up when Pale Male did and saw the eagle," Karim said. "They fly over in migration season, but very high. I have never seen one that close."

At that, the white-headed bird was distant enough that Karim, an Associated Press Television News technician, needed his 800mm lens to freeze it in flight, and all but one of his photos were slightly blurred by movement. The photo showed the eagle as it appears on the national escutcheon -- wings spread, head cocked in vigilance, but with what looked like a striped bass in its talons, instead of the flowing ribbon reading, "E Pluribus Unum."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11932

[Fridays Child]

1. I'd love to see the photo but I imagine that the photographer will...

...keep it for a book or he'll seek a hefty price for it.

[TomPainesBones]

5. The photographer posts his pictures

on the Internet for all to see...


http://palemale.com/

[xultar]

7. AND HOW! Wow what a fuckin AWESOME ASS PHOTO. Brings tears to my eyes.

I love the beauty of nature.

[Fridays Child]

9. Just fantastic!

Thanks for the link. :)

[annabanana]

2. That's pretty cool!

Thanks for the post.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Thanks for posting this. I had wondered what happened to Pale Male.

The documentary TV program on this amazing hawk was very interesting and brought back huge memories of living and working in NYC.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/palemale/

[SharonAnn]

4. They´re truly amazing to see. We saw one last spring on the little island

in front of our house. First, it flew by our bedroom window as we were getting up. Having never seen a bird that big close to our house I said¨something intelligent like "What the hell was that?" I told my husband it was a huge bird with some white splotches.

I raced to the living room, got the binoculars there, searched the sky and found it circling the area. It landed on the little island in front of our house, about 100 yards offshore. It then proceeded to begin eating the fish it had caught, tearing off pieces of flesh. After about 20 minutes it hid the fish behind a large piece of driftwood and flew off. It came back at least twice that day to continue eating the fish.

We got some good pictures of it, and let me tell you they don´t begin to convey the impression that bird makes in person. Large, fierce looking, vigilant and those yellow eyes are intimidating.

A few weeks later we saw a juvenile, full size but still had some of the juvenile splotchiness, sitting in the big walnut tree next to our house. It was huge!

I´m so glad they´re not extinct. They´re truly awe-inspiring.

[China_cat]

8. Be glad you got the pictures.

Now that they're being taken off the endangered species list, they'll be gone within 10 years.

[bpj1962]

11. Endangered Species List

The American Bald Eagle was put on the endangered species list in 1969 because the pesticide DDT was making the egg shells soft and the eagles were unable to produce offspring. Since DDT was banned as a pesticide the Eagle population has almost returned to its pre 1960 levels. You are still not allowed to hunt the Bald Eagle and if you get caught you will face federal charges. The biggest threat to the Eagle is high tension power lines and automobiles. Budweiser maintains an Eagle rehabilitation center at its Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg Virginia. All of the birds are unable to fly do to some sort of injury. The amazing thing was how big they really are.

[Ellis Wyatt]

6. awesome

Those birds are so bad-ass.

I live in NYC, I'd love to see one.

[Gloria]

10. I have a very sad story about a red-tailed hawk that I spotted

in the environs of Rt 295 in NJ, between Hopewell Twp. and Hamilton (near Trenton). I watched for him every day when I went to work.

One day, during the tax season, I had to work on a Saturday. As I drove down the road, I saw smashed in the road, a carcass of what obviously was my red-tailed hawk. I nearly drove off the road. I was so disturbed by this that I wrote a letter to the editor, which was published...a eulogy for this beautiful bird.

It upsets me to this day. I hope the eagle isn't eating a fish that is badly tainted and that PaleMale stays safe...

[YOY]

12. Pics aplenty HERE

http://www.palemale.com/

[pansypoo53219]

13. i think i saw a perigrine Xmas day

sitting on a farm's field post eating lunch.
it certainly was a hawk.