Birding to Change the World: A Memoir

In this uplifting environmental 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'd never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters―first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock―that 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 a full-on bird obsessive―logging hours in a stunningly biodiverse urban park, filling field notebooks with the drama of local urban wildlife, and teaching ornithology to college students and middle-school kids. When Warner Park―her daily birdwatching haven―was threatened with development, O’Kane and her neighbors mustered a mighty murmuration of nature lovers, young and old, to save the birds' homes.