Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife
Winn, who made the red-tailed hawk Pale Male the most famous resident of New York’s Central Park (Red-Tails In Love, 1999), now studies the city’s largest park at night. Although most people would shun the area in the evening, Winn points out that the majority of crimes committed in the park are in the daytime. And avoiding the park at night would mean missing Bug Night, when an inveterate group of birders prevailed on the American Museum of Natural History to lend them an entomologist, leading to a love affair with moths and the unearthing of some rare species. A hunt for emerging cicada nymphs leads to another discovery—the fascination of slug sex, a riveting drama that is seductive, alluring, and strangely beautiful to watch. Where do birds sleep? And how do they hide? Answering these questions led to observations of a large roost of robins with concomitant roughhousing and jockeying for position before they slept. Winn is an engaging writer, making us care about the evening denizens of the park (human or otherwise). --Nancy Bent