http://nypost.com/2014/09/21/condo-takes-down-endangered-peregrine-falcons-nesting-box/They’re flipping the bird at the falcon family. A Central Park West condo — with the blessing of the state agency charged with protecting wildlife — has destroyed the man-made nest a pair of endangered peregrine falcons used to breed and raise two rare chicks.
Comet and Cruiser’s nesting box had been secured to the penthouse windowsill of animal advocates Steve Nislick and wife Linda Marcus at 25 Central Park West. But construction workers on scaffolds removed the box without warning on Monday, Marcus said. Shortly after, the condo board sent a letter to her apartment saying the board authorized the removal because of the “dangerous condition” it posed to pedestrians and residents below.
“I looked out the window and it was gone,” Marcus said. “The birds came back and were making all kinds of noise. It was heartbreaking.”
Board president Mike Kelly said a letter from the state Department of Environmental Conservation — indicating no state approval was needed to trash the box and that the agency didn’t anticipate its removal would result in any harm — sealed their decision.
“It’s not the board against the birds,” Kelly said. “[Marcus and Nislick’s] emotional investment in the animals can blind them to what the consequences are for people.”
Falcon experts are crying foul.
“The survival of these birds is reliant on the hospitality of strangers,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a master falconer — told The Post.
Experts say losing the box means the 17-inch-tall predators may not breed successfully. Once a peregrine finds a perch to call home, it will typically return there. But eggs laid on building ledges often break.
A DEC spokesman said peregrine eggs and babies are protected in New York state, but the agency determined no harm would be done by destroying the box since the baby birds have flown the coop.
