Customer Reviews

Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wish I were living right next to Central Park in NYC! Unfortunately I am not as I live in far-away Britanny, France just across the Atlantic Pond beyond Long Island but was a pleasure to be reading Central park in the Dark ! Although my English is sometimes defective as I am not practicing the language too often on this side of the Ocean, I was able, to my great delight, to enjoy the numerous puns from Marie Winn! Beside being extremely humorous the text is full of information regarding the unexpected and most extraordinary wildlife of Central Park.
Reading the book makes me feel really nostalgic about my past visits to the City as I missed Central Park's weird and wild animal population! Hawks, owls, skimmers, raccoons and giant moths! Myself a birder with several hundred species under my wings was astonished by learning how glistening is this natural treasure lying right in the heart of the Apple Megapolis! What a pity my English cannot truly reflect my thoughts! But I assume a lot of readers will have the required knowledge and will jump on this marvelous book. Once you read it you cannot think anymore of Central park as a "dark place" but to the contrary, it will appear now as a shining jewel in the city. Lucky New Yorkers! Please, forgive my not-too-good English!

This book is very well written and extremely infomative, making one want to go out immediately to Central Park to see all the wildlife!

I haven't read this author's other books, but after reading this I definitely will! I'm a lifelong birder, and her vivid descriptions of different "chases" and the sense of community and fellowship when she meets up with other avid watchers is excactly why I find birding so much fun. I particularly appreciate that her interest in birding leads her to explore other curiosities such as moths. A very engaging and charming book.

This is not a negative review---I give the book three stars because I did enjoy reading it. I'm an avid wildlife photographer with a particularly strong interest in Owls. As such, I loved hearing from someone with an equally strong devotion to the subject, whose enthusiasm shines through on every page. What I'd say is this: if you're someone who instinctively thinks you'd like this book, then read it---you probably will.

I have two misgivings, one superficial, one more serious (in my opinion). The first is that the NYC birders described in this book all come off sounding a wee bit nutty and obsessive. (I suppose that might be an accurate portrayal of us all, but I'm not ready to concede that point.) This is not a book that's likely to attract anyone new to the hobby. The second misgiving (and the more serious one) is that the author is profoundly guilty of anthropomorphizing her non-human subjects. (She acknowledges this here and there, but it doesn't stop.) I cringed at a few descriptions that applied human emotions to Owls and that seem to have been widely accepted by the authors' entire gang of fellow Owlers. If you're scientifically-minded about birds (rather than emotionally-minded---not that the two are mutually exclusive!), this book may annoy you. Quite a bit.

But again, I did enjoy much of it, and I learned a lot (pretty much everything I now know) about what nocturnal critters are to be found in Central Park---and, in some cases, how they got there.

This book is a delightful read! Marie Winn makes Central Park come alive at night . . . when the people go home! Or at least, most people go home. The book is also about small bands of intrepid wildlife-stalkers, tracking the Black Witch (moth) or following the "graveyard ditty" of screech owls . . . folks who brave the urban myths and imagined terrors of the park at night, bouyed by curiosity about the park's ecology and a thirst to know more about this patch of nature in the city. Inspiring! Eye-opening! Wish we had a book like this about Golden Gate Park in San Francisco!