New Yorkers Captivated by These Love Birds

NEW YORK — Many New Yorkers were all atwitter Thursday over the highly public canoodling of one of their most high-flying celebrity couples -- Pale Male and Lola, who enjoyed their clinch in their architect-designed nest.

The pair of red-tailed hawks have been spotted mating around the neighborhood of the ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment building where they were evicted, then restored to a brand-new love nest in December.

“It’s hard to miss them now. They’re seriously trying to propagate,” said bird watcher Marie Winn.

The coupling was front-page news for the tabloid New York Post, but Winn said that, hormones being what they are, the mating was never in doubt. The only question, she said, was whether the hawks would take to their old nesting site, which was rebuilt in stainless steel and protected by spikes.

A media frenzy erupted over the birds’ eviction by wealthy residents angered by droppings and half-eaten pigeons littering the elegant building’s entrance.

The controversy pitted bird-watchers and actress Mary Tyler Moore against other residents until a deal to build a new nest was brokered.