An interesting update to the Pale Male story. He was courting a dark-colored female for a long time. She's disappeared, and he has a new, lighter-colored lady in his life.

Lincoln Karim's photos are here:

http://www.palemale.com/january302011s.html

I don't know if this behavior is usual for hawks or not; I had assumed that a mate is a mate to hawks, but clearly something didn't work out.

Once again, I'm reminded of how lucky we are to observe these birds so closely, even when our observations give us more questions than answers.