Pale Male and Lola: Christmas Day

Christmas Day finally dawned in NYC, clear and crisp. I tried, with limited success, to sleep through my neighbors' raucous parties that finally quieted around 3 am, and finally crawled out of bed at 6 am when my smoke detector alarm sounded, for mysterious reasons. After dawdling in the shower, I finally made it to Central Park where I sat on a park bench blinking in the bright sun, surrounded by flocks of puffy English Sparrows, Passer domesticus. They gazed at me hopefully while I studied Pale Male and Lola's nest cradle. Neither hawk was present on or even near the nest, although Lola did appear briefly to soar low over the sailboat pond, shrieking.

The first thing I noticed about the nest structure was despite the contractor's promises yesterday to secure the netting that hangs from the scaffolding, this has not occurred. In fact, the netting has loosened more and now four feet of net hangs from the scaffolding and is tangled in the spikes themselves. This poses a hazard to the birds because they can either become entangled or entrapped in it and cause themselves serious injury or even death. Of course, if either bird is injured or worse through this carelessness, there will be plenty of negative publicity and loss of business as a result.

I called Preferred Restoration, Inc. and talked with Diana, who remembered me from yesterday, and used my authority as an ornithologist to voice my concerns about the netting issue again. Diana, a chatty and seemingly ardent Pale Male and Lola fan herself, immediately called the contractor at home to make sure the net is secured. I plan to return to the sailboat pond for awhile today to watch them take care of this, although my update on this situation will probably not appear until tomorrow, when I return to my office (the only place where I have internet access).