Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park [Hardcover]

Marie Winn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1998

Marie Winn is our guide into a secret world, a true wilderness in the heart of a city. The scene is New York's Central Park, but the rich natural history that emerges here--the loons, raccoons, woodpeckers, owls, and hundreds of visiting songbirds--will appeal to wildlife lovers everywhere. At its heart is the saga of the Fifth Avenue hawks, which begins as a love story and develops into a full-fledged mystery.

At the outset of our journey we meet the Regulars, a small band of nature lovers who devote themselves to the park and its wildlife. As they watch Pale Male, a remarkable young red-tailed hawk, woo and win his first mate, they are soon transformed into addicted hawk-watchers. From a bench at the park's model-boat pond they observe the hawks building a nest in an astonishing spot--a high ledge of a Fifth Avenue building three floors above Mary Tyler Moore's apartment and across the street from Woody Allen's.

The drama of the Fifth Avenue hawks--hunting, courting, mating, and striving against great odds to raise a family in their unprecedented nest site--is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking. Red-Tails in Love will delight and inspire readers for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

From Publishers Weekly

New York's Central Park, although located in the heart of Gotham, is one of the prime birding areas in the country, with about 190 species observed by a dedicated band of nature lovers whom Winn knows as the "Regulars," being one herself. A nature columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the author of The Plug-In Drug and other books, Winn tells a captivating story here of hawks, humans and other denizens of the park over a five-year period. In the spring of 1992, a pair of red-tailed hawks built a nest on a high ledge of a building on Fifth Avenue (Woody Allen's penthouse was across the street). Great excitement and anticipation ensued among Winn's adoptive clan. When, in the third year, the first fledglings appeared, the Regulars maintained a dawn-to-dusk watch on the nest. They observed the hawks mating, hunting, eating (pigeons and rats were plentiful) and bringing food to their young. These activities attracted a lot of attention from people passing through the park?children, tourists, workmen, city officials?many of whom prove interesting here as sideshows to the main event of the birds. Winn brings a wonderfully clear eye to all her observations, avian and otherwise. Birders will be enchanted, as will thoughtful students of human nature.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (March 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679439978
• ISBN-13: 978-0679439974
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,894,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting, December 15, 2004

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Vintage Departures) (Paperback)

As I write this at the very end of 2004, a red-tailed hawk drama has hit the press: The nest of a minor celebrity, Pale Male, the hero of the non-fictional "Red Tails in Love," had his nest summarily and probably illegally removed from the tony 5th Avenue address where he has nested for many a year.

I happened to be in the middle of this divinely wonderful book when the news hit the airwaves, and I took it hard. Marie Winn, the ornithology (for lack of a more romantic word) columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote this lovely account of a band of birdwatchers who discover nesting raptors right across from Central Park in 1998. This was before 9/11 by a few years, and it has that wonderful innocence we all felt about life before the attacks.

The story concerns a red-tailed male hawk, dubbed "Pale Male" by the birdwatchers because of his unusually pale coloring, and his various mates and fledglings who live and breed in the most exclusive of addresses: New York's Upper East Side. We get to know the birds, their babies, their nesting triumphs and tragedies. We learn about the phenomenally prolific wildlife in Central Park, from birds to turtles to raccoons to dragonflies to butterflies to edible plants. We learn to know and love the dedicated band of independent souls who track these wonders of nature from season to season, year to year.

I hope that all will go well with Pale Male this year. And I hope that anybody who has any doubt about the beauty of the human spirit and the creatures who inhabit the earth with us will read this simply wonderful book!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marie Winn Makes Bird-Watching Irresistible., March 13, 2004

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Hardcover)

"Red-Tails In Love" is more than a story of migrant red-tail hawks raising a family in the middle of Manhattan. It's the most inspiring piece of writing about birding that I've ever read. This book would entice anyone to break out the binoculars and head outdoors to meet the avian neighbors. Author Marie Winn, who also writes a nature column for the Wall Street Journal, tells the tale of her birding colleagues, a group of regular bird watchers in New York's Central Park, and their obsession over the course of a few years with a pair of red-tailed hawks' attempts to breed in the midst of America's largest urban jungle. The drama repeats itself every year as the hawks try to cope with threats from humans and birds alike in order to raise broods of young red-tails in their 5th Avenue nest -ensconced in some of Manhattan's most prestigious real estate, no less. The most incredible part of the story is the rehabilitation of several injured female red-tails, who make their way back to Central Park and annually provide the birdwatchers with a new mystery to solve as to the identity of Pale Male's mate. Interspersed with the adventures of the hawks and hawk-watchers are other stories of bird-watching in the Park, including unusual sightings, some near-disasters with the city's Parks Department, and introductions to some very knowledgeable, and occasionally colorful, birders. In the last section of the book, entitled "A Wildlife Almanac", you will find guides to "Birds Through the Year in Central Park", "Butterflies of Central Park", "Migrating Hawks Over Central Park", "A Taste or Two Along the Way" (edible plants), and a map of the park. The guides are written by some of the Park's birding "Regulars" who are experts in those subjects, and contain information on where and when to find the species mentioned. If you live in New York City or are planning an extended visit, you may find this section of the book extremely useful. And to think that when I lived in New York City, it never occurred to me to go bird-watching in Central Park. If I ever return there, I won't make that mistake again. "Red-Tails In Love" is a very readable story of birds who thrive in an urban environment and the humans who are fascinated by them. It's a real page-turner...and a cure for anyone who ever thought birds were boring. The best thing about this book is that makes bird-watching irresistible.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Purchased this book in protest against Pale Male's eviction, December 15, 2004

By 

J. Bramel "novice birdwatcher" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park (Vintage Departures) (Paperback)

As a New Yorker, I hadn't really paid much attention to Pale Male before this unfortunate state of affairs. There was something shockingly callous and arrogant in the way the board of 927 Fifth Avenue destroyed this magnificent bird's home. I hope the hawks will eventually get their nest back.

I would like to find out more about this star's history and family. My whole family is now crazy about him and Lola.

Hail Pale Male!