Hawks get home back

NEW YORK – Come back, Pale Male and Lola. All is forgiven.

A week after the two red-tailed hawks were evicted from their aerie outside a luxury apartment building, the board that runs the high-rise on Fifth Avenue has given in to the demands of bird lovers and agreed to let the couple rebuild their nest.

Now the question is whether the birds that flew the co-op will come home to roost.

The possible return of Pale Male and Lola came after a week of angry protests and bizarre Big Apple street theater on a stately block of Manhattan. Women chanted with stuffed birds on their heads, ambulance sirens screamed in support of the hawks, and a 13-year-old girl tap-danced in a cow costume in the middle of Fifth Avenue.

The tale of two hawks began a decade ago, when Pale Male took up residence at 927 Fifth Ave. With a succession of mates, he raised 25 chicks to the delight of many New Yorkers, who watched the brood through binoculars and telescopes. Each year, more sticks were added until the nest, on an arched cornice outside a 12th-floor window, came to weigh 200 to 300 pounds.

Finally, on Dec. 7, the board had the nest pulled down and carried away, citing hazards from falling debris, including the occasional squirrel, pigeon or rat carcass flung out of the nest by the hawks after feeding. The board also feared the nest would weaken the cornice.

Scores of demonstrators flocked nightly to the corner of 74th and Fifth, often joined by actress Mary Tyler Moore, an ardent hawk advocate who lives in the building.