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Outdoors & Nature |
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Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Vintage Departures)
written by Marie Winn
Studio : Vintage
by Vintage
Release Date : 1999-03-30
Publisher : Vintage
Released : 1999-03-30
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780679758464
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 27 reviews)
List Price : $14.95
Our Price : $4.99
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Product Description |
Updated Edition—Ten Years Later
The scene of this enchanting (and true) story is the Ramble, an unknown wilderness deep in the heart of New York's fabled Central Park. There an odd and amiable band of nature lovers devote themselves to observing and protecting the park's rich wildlife. When a pair of red-tailed hawks builds a nest atop a Fifth Avenue apartment house across the street from the model-boat pond, Marie Winn and her fellow "Regulars" are soon transformed into obsessed hawkwatchers. The hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking saga of Pale Male and his mate as they struggle to raise a family in their unprecedented nest site, and the affectionate portrait of the humans who fall under their spell will delight and inspire readers for years to come. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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The literature of bird watching is full of memoirs set in out-of-the-way, rural locales, but few are set in the heart of big cities such as New York, where Wall Street Journal ornithology columnist Marie Winn hangs her hat. In this delightful account, Winn tells of birding in Central Park with an unlikely band of fellow enthusiasts (including Mary Tyler Moore and Woody Allen). Among her objects of study were a pair of increasingly uncommon wood thrushes who set up their nest in the park's Ramble, treating city dwellers to their "penetrating, flutelike, heart-stoppingly beautiful song: Ee-oh-lee, ee-oh-loo-ee-lee, ee-lay-loo," and a pair of red-tail hawks who courted, mated, and produced offspring, thus quickening the spirits of Manhattanites. Both urbanites and those inclined to country matters will enjoy Winn's gracefully written story of observation and discovery. |
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Who's in love here? |
There's a lot of love poured out in this book. It flows freely from the New York City hawk watchers, of whom the author is one, for the red-tailed hawks of the title and the myriad bird life in and around Central Park. The story turns around the mating attempts, failures, and successes of a male red-tail hawk, called Pale Male for his light plumage. A common enough nature story, perhaps; except this hawk courts, mates, hunts, and raises young in Manhattan in full binocular-enhanced view of a band of dedicated hawk watchers and, eventually, international media.
If you want a scientific discourse on hawks and their mating habits or the skinny on avian romance from the birds' point of view, don't look for it here. Only as much ornithology is offered as needed to understand why the human participants in the story react to events as they do. The birds are not artificially thrust into the narrator's role; their separateness from our species is not negated by the author's imagination. I respect the author's decision; it fits well with my preference that animals be respected for what they are; not for how they are similar to us, how they entertain us, or how they are useful to us. This decision does mean that readers, like the hawk watchers, can only observe the wildlife drama of the book's subtitle from a distance.
What this rather charming book offers close up is the tale of the watchers themselves, their love of birds, and the informal community that coalesces around their nesting season hawk nest stake-outs. The reader is drawn to these people who love birds and are willing to sacrifice comfort (like warm beds on cold mornings), endure tedium (to watch and wait for signs of hatching), and sometimes put aside their "real" lives (even to the extent of postponing job hunting) to feed their love.
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Wanted More Hawk & Less Birder Content |
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For me the book was so-so. There seemed to me to be more energy spent on which birders were standing where, when, and saying which anthromopomorphic statements than there was content on the subject of the book, hawks in/near Central Park. The story of the hawks was intriquing but I didn't feel like I really got a cohesive story about them, it was frequently interupted by the other concerns of the book (Hawkwatchers, Earlybirds, 'Moth'ers, Duckers, Butterflyers, Dragon/Damselflyers...) |
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Fun read! |
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I bought this book for my husband, then I read it in one day while stuck at the airport. It was a compelling read, good story and interesting information. We live in New York and go to Central Park often, so this made it even more interesting... I am keeping my eyes open for what birds are in the parks near my house. A well written book, I would recommend it. |
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book review |
Although the book is written in a kind of factual style (e.g. On this day we saw this and this happened. A week later this happened...), I have enjoyed reading it. If you are an animal lover,especially of the bird kind, it is a heartwarming story of a real hawk trying to live and make it in Central Park. That is amazing in itself.
Some people may get a little bogged down in the recounting of the daily activities of the bird watchers who meet in the park. But if you love birds, it is worth it to wade through that. I would buy the book again. |
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wonderful story |
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I live in Portland Oregon, and have large populations of birds in my back yard, so this was a fun read. Perhaps i will visit NYC someday, and i will bring my glasses! What a nice book! |
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