Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Vintage Departures)
by Marie Winn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marie WinnEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-03-30
ISBN: 0679758461
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Vintage Departures)
Book Review: Who's in love here?
Summary: 3 Stars
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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