In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment.
Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she had never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin.
O’Kane moved away from Louisiana and began watching birds as she recovered from the disaster, Birdwatching cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O'Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD. There she became totally engrossed in birding, logging hours in a stunningly biodiverse urban park, filling field notebooks with bird doings and dramas, and teaching ornithology to college students and middle-school kids.
When development threatens Warner Park, her daily birdwatching haven, O’Kane and her neighbors muster a mighty murmuration of nature lovers, young and old, to save the birds' homes. Through their efforts, she learns that once you get outside and look around, you are likely to fall in love with a furred or feathered creature and find a flock of your own.
This is a warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, the story of an impassioned teacher and an improbable band of bird lovers who saved their park. It is a blueprint for active citizen science, powered by joy.
Hardcover.
