Meet: Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park.

As part of the year-long Paradise exhibition at Proteus Gowanus, we will walk through the sounds of spring in Prospect Park. We will be silent, unplugged from all our devices, and “all ears” as birdsong (“the dawn chorus”) surrounds us in the midst of a borough of 2.5 million people. This will be a walking meditation, a natural concert, a rehabilitation of our urban-abused sense of hearing, and anything else you wish it to be.

New York City is in the Atlantic Flyway, the east coast’s major migration route for billions of birds moving northwards to their breeding grounds during spring. Prospect Park is a vital stopover for dozens of species heading further north, as well as those species that nest there. It is an avian paradise, constantly imperiled. The sun rises at 5:55 a.m. on May 1. This walk will be led by bird-listening and natural history blogger Matthew Wills.

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What Happened