A few months after we moved to Staten Island from Manhattan, I was looking out my kitchen window and my eyes widened at the sight of a peregrine falcon perched on a branch in my backyard tree. I yelled to my son, “Quick – get the camera,” but he was only 3 at the time and wasn’t even sure what a camera looked like. I missed getting that picture, but I did get a picture weeks later of two wayward parrots that had flown into my overgrown backyard.

It was exhilarating for this city slicker to view the blue jays, robins, and an occasional wild bird of unknown genus, up close and personal. The idea, however, that I could ever join the crowds in front of a Manhattan co-op to mourn the loss of a hawk’s nest is beyond ridiculous.

Reading the comments made by these bird lovers only cemented my growing lament at how ludicrous some New Yorkers have become. Most of those, I am sorry to say, live in Manhattan, which is fast becoming La-La Land East.

I find it hard to understand why anyone would get so involved with the nesting habits of a predatory bird, because that is exactly what Pale Male and his mate are: predatory. These hawks are also squatters on private property and have little concern on where they leave their droppings or the remains of their prey.

It has been speculated that because the head of the co-op board that removed the hawks’ nest is married to CNN’s Paula Zahn, this nonstory has become fodder for the local tabloids. These birds have been attracting attention, however, ever since a documentary was made by a Belgian-born local filmmaker, Frederic Lilien, and shown last May on PBS’s “Nature” series. The documentary humanized the hawk and made it an instant celebrity. Before you knew it, bird lovers were setting up shop in Central Park and training their telescopes on 927 Fifth Ave.

Now a man has been arrested for allegedly stalking Ms. Zahn and her husband, Richard Cohen, and terrorizing their two children. “Bring back the nest. Bring back the birds,” the suspect, Lincoln Karim, is said to have screamed at the family on more than one occasion. That New Yorkers are protesting the removal of a bird’s nest is, to me, more proof of how very blue this city has become.

New York was always the city of the rugged individualist. No more. The concept of individual rights belongs much more in the domain of conservative thought. Liberals, on the other hand, tend to think more in terms of groups. They tend to view problems from the perspective of members of various segments of society. Thus, they have animal rights, women’s rights, gay rights, minority rights, union concerns – all trumping the rights of an individual, especially if the individual is among “the rich.”

That “group think” probably began in the 1960s when the Age of Aquarius clashed with the Vietnam War, and when only drugs and rock ‘n’ roll made any sense to some young people. Together, they reasoned, they could stop the war and fight the establishment. But a true Aquarian marches to the beat of a different drum and marches alone – never in a crowd.

The bead-wearing, tie-dyed pseudoiconoclasts of my generation functioned only as a very large and noisy group, discovering strength in numbers. It’s obvious that many of them went on to join the mainstream press and broadcasting networks, because today’s editorials seldom champion individual rights.

To be born in New York City used to carry a certain cachet, sophistication, a je ne sais quoi elan. It meant a person who remains unruffled and cool regardless of what was occurring. At the same time, one could be as tough as steel when provoked. Even Hollywood subscribed to that identity with films such as “Die Hard” and Bruce Willis’s portrayal of John McClane, the tough NYPD cop.

What do we have now? This city is so politically correct that the smoking ban went through with barely a whimper. A reader sent me an e-mail complaining that The New York Sun’s picture of that weary and battle-scarred marine in Fallujah with a cigarette dangling from his mouth was sending a bad message. The reader conceded he was against the war and thus noticed only the cigarette. I saw only the soldier’s eyes. That sums up the difference in our ideologies.

When I look up in the sky and see a hawk attacking the crows and other birds, I recognize it as a bird behaving naturally, and then I go on with my life. Those gawkers on Fifth Avenue need to get one of their own.