On Tuesday, September 23rd from 6-9 p.m. New York City Audubon will be holding its annual Fall Roost Benefit at the Boathouse in Central Park.  I’ve gone the last few years and have had a wonderful time and will be
attending again this year.  If you live or work in New York City, you
should consider attending.  Tickets start at $250, ($125 for persons under 35).

I’ve donated a framed print of six young ducklings chasing after their mother at Turtle Pond, to the silent auction.

The framed, signed print is number three of a twenty-five copy edition.  The
print measures 10″ x 8 1/2″ and the frame is 15 1/2″ by 13″. 

If you attend the auction, please consider bidding on the photograph.  I’ve donated the item, so 100% of your winning bid will go directly to support NYC Audubon’s on-going conservation and education programs in the five boroughs.

For full details of about the event and how to purchase tickets, go to the New York City Audubon website.

If all of the great review for Marie Winn’s new book, Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife haven’t gotten you to purchase it and read it, here’s a great interview from this afternoon. She was on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC radio. Click here and then click on the Listen link to hear the interview. 

I even got a mention in the interview!  Thanks, Marie.

The book is a fun, easy read and is available online at a number of online
resellers including:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
or
your local bookstore

Marie Winn’s Central Park in the Dark  is on sale today. Congratulations to Marie, whose new book is getting excellent reviews. If you enjoyed Red-tails in Love, you’re sure to enjoy this new book.

I’m also excited that book is on sale for personal reasons.  The jacket photographs are mine and I’m included as a character in a number of chapters.

The book is a fun, easy read and is available online at a number of online resellers including:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
or your local bookstore

Don’t just take my work for it.  Here is some early praise for the book:

“New York City never sleeps, as Marie Winn proves in this delightful blend of natural history and human obsession. With her usual grace and humor, Winn weaves stories of tiny owls, exotic moths – even slug sex – into a captivating tapestry depicting the nocturnal wonders of America’s most famous park.” —Scott Weidensaul, author of “Of a Feather” and “Living on the Wind”

“How great is New York? Right in the middle of all that finance and culture
and diplomacy, there’s a great reservoir of wildness—and people crazy-wonderful enough to explore it day and night. Marie Winn’s account will make you want to grab your headlamp and head for the park, wherever you live.” —Bill McKibben, author of The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life 

“Marie Winn’s new book is another gem. You pick it up and immediately have fun, learning a lot as you read about what goes on at night in the city.” —Bernd Heinrich, author of Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal
Survival

“Marie Winn lights up Central Park at night with wit, intelligence and a warm humanity that makes this book a love song to the natural world, an elegy for a lost friend, and an invitation to the unknown reader to follow her into the inviting dark.” —Jonathan Rosen, author of The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature

When I started hawk watching a few years ago, I was disappointed by the poor quality of the information about hawks in the city.  While almost everyone was focused on the famous pair of Red-tailed Hawks on 5th Avenue, it was apparent that there was a wide selection of raptor species and nest locations in the city. 

It became clear to me that the highly anthropomorphized reporting on blogs and in the media was not bringing to light the true picture of the state of raptors in the city.  Pale Male’s incredible consistency, producing young year after year, had created a distorted view of the reality of New York City’s raptor population.

Because of this, I started blogging.  Along with many other individuals, I feel that we have begun to help turn the tide and are starting to have people look at the science of urban hawks rather than just follow them like creatures in the zoo or treat them as if they were pets. 

The phenomena of urban hawks is fairly new.  It is not conforming to established patterns and is making us think about new issues.  There are lots of gray areas with regard to conservation and a need for the urban hawk watching community to identify and then recommend areas for change.  There are many unanswered questions:

• How to support rehabilitators in the city who depend on contributions from the public to support birds in need of care?
• How to support birds who nest in awkward locations and areas?  When is a nest location too urban, and intervention is needed to protect the fledglings?
• How to revise Animal Control policies, so fledglings are given a chance to establish themselves before being removed from urban locations?
• How to educate the public, so that hawks are not harassed, stolen, injured or killed?
• How to prevent secondary deaths from poisons?

This year, we’ve had an unusually large number of Red-tailed Hawk nesting problems in New York City.  A few pairs did not have successful hatchings, we’ve had at least seven eyasses die, and at least one fledgling die.  We’ve also had the largest number of nesting pairs in the city’s recent history.  As, we have more pairs, the accidents will only continue to rise.

Let’s be careful to take our disappointment about these nest failures, and not turn to anger, but let this disappointment motivate us to work harder with, and for, local organizations to promote urban hawk safety and to provide support for vets and rehabilitators who volunteer their time to assist these wonderful birds.

In March of 2008, I gave the following lecture:

50 Birds in 50 Days with Bruce Yolton
Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Bruce Yolton is an amateur photographer, popular blogger, and avid birder who has lived in New York City for over twenty years. Bruce discovered birding three years ago when Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates prompted him to walk every path in Central Park, and he has been hooked ever since. He shares his joy of learning about birds with others in his blog about Central Park birding, called Urban Hawks.

Now, you too can learn how to go from beginner to seasoned birder as Bruce shares his birding experiences and tips in person at Belvedere Castle in Central Park. In Bruce’s lecture presentation, 50 Birds in 50 Days, he will display his birding photographs, teach how to select a field guide and choose binoculars, and divulge the best walking routes and viewing spots in Central Park.

It was a great deal of fun to share my love of birding in Central Park.

If you missed the lecture, here is a summary of the links and the slides from the talk:

• Full talk (with bonus slides)
• Full talk (with bonus slides) for smaller monitors

A few months ago, I was approached by the Parks Department to give a lecture as part of their On A Wing series.  I’ve had a great time learning to bird in Central Park and thought it would fun to give a lecture sharing my experiences during my first 50 days of birding and show others how easy it is to start bird watching in the park.  The official announcement is below.  Please join me on the 29th.

50 Birds in 50 Days with Bruce Yolton
Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Bruce Yolton is an amateur photographer, popular blogger, and avid birder who has lived in New York City for over twenty years. Bruce discovered birding three years ago when Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates prompted him to walk every path in Central Park, and he has been hooked ever since. He shares his joy of learning about birds with others in his blog about Central Park birding, called Urban Hawks.

Now, you too can learn how to go from beginner to seasoned birder as Bruce shares his birding experiences and tips in person at Belvedere Castle in Central Park. In Bruce’s lecture presentation, 50 Birds in 50 Days, he will display his birding photographs, teach how to select a field guide and choose binoculars, and divulge the best walking routes and viewing spots in Central Park.

FREE. Reservation required. For more information and for reservations, please call (212) 628-2345.

This program is part of the On a Wing series, which is co-presented by the Central Park Conservancy and Urban Park Rangers. On a Wing celebrates birds in Central Park through special lectures and family events at Belvedere Castle. Other events in the series include the On a Wing Family Festival on Saturday, April 5 and Central Park Naturally: The Photos and Writings of Charles Kennedy on Sunday, April 13.