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Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:44 pm
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Location: Milton, Pa.
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Upper West Side condo board wants to evict falcons  What a bunch of birdbrains.
The board of a swanky condo at 25 Central Park West wants to evict a family of endangered peregrine falcons — including two hatchlings just 3 months old — that are roosting on a millionaire’s windowsill.
The rare raptors first appeared on the ledge outside the bathroom window of parking magnate Steve Nislick and his wife, Linda Marcus, in 2010. The peregrines, who mate for life, returned every year since to their nest overlooking the park — but their eggs never hatched.
This spring, Marcus installed a 3-foot-wide nesting box to the perch outside their 32nd-story penthouse at the landmark Century building. The box, weighed down with gravel and bolted to the wall, ensured that the birds and eggs were protected from harsh weather.
On May 10, two chicks were born. Every day, the falcon couple — named Cruiser and Comet — return to the ledge at sunrise to teach their fledglings, almost fully grown at 17 inches tall, to hunt.
But condo-board president Mike Kelly says this just won’t fly.
“He’s going to build an illegal falcon’s nest 300 feet above people’s heads,” Kelly said of Nislick, an animal activist.
Kelly said the box could fall and injure passers-by.
“Somebody did something without telling us,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to find out what our legal obligations are.”
The building manager, Eric Lyons of Douglas Elliman, has proclaimed that the bird box will get the boot.
Lyons “wants to get rid of it quietly,” fumed Marcus, whose husband founded NYCLASS, the group that wants to ban horse-drawn carriages on animal-cruelty grounds. “When I asked if there was anyone else I could talk to, he said, ‘I’m not at liberty to tell you.’ It’s shocking.”
Lyons hung up the phone on a Post reporter asking for comment.
Apartments in the building, where Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. own pads, go for upward of $9.8 million.
Kelly told The Post the nest violates landmarks law and prevents exterior renovations.
A spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission said the city will review the box and determine whether Marcus should apply for a work permit.
Cruiser and Comet could ruffle feathers as much as Pale Male and Lola, the city’s famous red-tailed hawks who were evicted from a Fifth Avenue co-op overlooking Central Park.
In 2004, the co-op board caused a furor by removing Pale Male’s nest.
It was eventually reinstalled after negotiations involving the city, the co-op and the New York City Audubon Society.
Peregrine falcons were nearly eradicated by pesticides in the 1960s. There are only about 20 nesting pairs in New York City.
“It’s incredibly special to have peregrines on your windowsill,” said Dr. Richard Fried of Lincoln Square Veterinary Hospital.
“They’re still in danger in our area. This particular pair was only successful after a nest box was put up. It would be a tragedy for them to lose that box.”Picture here:
_________________
"The time to protect a species is while it is still common"
Rosalie Edge
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Founder
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