Much flap has been raised by concerned naturalists and sentimental neighbors after they received word that a nest belonging to a famous city hawk, Pale Male, has been removed from the top of a Manhattan apartment. Inhabitants of the surrounding area watched on as workmen raised a scaffold to the narrow twelvth floor ledge to remove the hawk's home.

Pale Male is a Red-Tailed Hawk, so named for his whitish plume, that has interested birdwatchers for almost the last decade. The hawk has been a sentimental fixture in the area, whose nest has intimately allowed people to watch him and a succession of mates raise 25 chicks. Pale Male and his mate, Lola, were nowhere to be seen as the nest was removed, nor were any of their latest offspring - a trio of chicks born earlier this year in June.

There were negative reactions to this seemingly insensitive move. "I am outraged," said a teary-eyed Jane Corin, who lives across the street. "That building has been very good about this until now. It's heartbreaking." Said bird watcher, Lincoln Karim, "The hawks will come back and find the nest is gone. How could these people do this?". Karim, who is also an engineer at Associated Press Television News, often lets people view the birds through his giant telephoto camera.

The building is currently managed by a prominent Manhattan real estate firm, Brown Harris Stevens, but the company has declined to comment on the situation.

City Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benape, will consult with state officials to determine who removed the nest and whether any law or regulation had been broken. Although, Red-tailed hawks are not legally protected, Benape believes the loss of the birds would hurt because "they limit the rodent population in an area where natural predators were absent for a long time."

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