Join us at dawn at the Grand Army Plaza entrance of Prospect Park for a silent walk through the woods with urban nature blogger and bird-listener Matthew Wills.

Each spring, tens of millions of birds migrate north along the Atlantic Coast of North America heading for breeding grounds from Florida to Labrador. Amidst the metropolitan sprawl, relatively intact swaths of woodlands like Prospect Park act as magnets for these birds as places to rest and re-fuel. Some of these birds will stay to nest here, some are just passing through. What unites them all is their vocalizations, the “dawn chorus” of hundreds of birds calling and singing.

We will walk in silence with ears open and all electronic devices off. The Listening Tour is a walking meditation, a natural sound concert, and a re-awakening of our often-abused urban ears.

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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