Now that's a fine fish...
The eagle's flight didn't go unnoticed by Pale Male, the famed red-tailed hawk of Central Park, who was perched on the 22nd floor of the Beresford apartment building as the eagle flew by.
"Pale Male usually sits there sort of relaxed, but he sat up straight when he saw the bald eagle," said Lincoln Karim, the man whose photographic chronicle made Pale Male and his mate Lola famous. Karim is an Associated Press Television News technician. (AP Photo/Lincoln Karim)
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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."
Bald eagles, once highly endangered and always strictly protected by federal law, have prospered in the New York region in recent years. As fish-eaters, they live in the Hudson River highlands, and several have been reintroduced under a city program to the Inwood section of upper Manhattan. They can be seen in winter, riding ice floes down the river and fishing along the way, said Cal Von Burger, a freelance photographer and author of a book, "The Birds of Central Park."
Von Burger said he has spotted eagles over the park numerous times in migrating seasons but none has chosen to live there. "They like high perches, and the trees aren't big enough, but unlike peregrines and other falcons they don't like buildings either," he said.
Yigal Gelb, executive director of New York City Audubon, which protects wild birds and their habitats, said eagles were rare in the park. "Seeing one," he said, "is a pretty big deal."
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