Sign-In
Cart
Birding to Change the World: A Memoir
Paperback
Publisher Price: $18.99
ISBN13: 9780063223165
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: Apr 1 2025
Pages: 384
Weight: 1.00
Height: 0.86 Width: 5.31 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
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'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 bird doings and dramas, 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. Through their efforts, she learned that once you get outside and look around, you're likely to fall in love with a furred or feathered creature--and find a flock of your own.
In Birding to Change the World, O'Kane details the astonishing science of bird life, from migration and parenting to the territorial defense strategies that influenced her own activism. A warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, this is the story of an improbably band of bird lovers who saved their park. And it is a blueprint for muscular citizenship, powered by joy.
Also in
Biographies General
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have
Rubin, Gretchen
Paperback
Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits
Walsh, Jim
Hardcover
Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World
Peters, C. J.
Olshaker, Mark
Paperback
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age
Irvine, Coco
Paperback
From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club: A Memoir
Presley, Lisa Marie
Keough, Riley
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Hardcover
Covet the Comeback: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Found Success, Lost Everything, Then Built a Fashion Empire
Garkinos, Christos
Paperback
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Hardcover
The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Perspectives, Ideology, and Wisdom
Rockefeller, J. D.
Paperback
Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Hardcover
We Will Be Jaguars (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Memoir of My People
Anderson, Mitch
Nenquimo, Nemonte
Hardcover
I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home
Shriver, Maria
Hardcover
The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
Sobel, Dava
Hardcover
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
Carter, Graydon
Hardcover
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Paperback
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Hardcover
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
Bauerlein, Valerie
Hardcover
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings
Morgan, Leanne
Hardcover
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!)
Lenz, Bethany Joy
Hardcover
True Gretch: What I've Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
Whitmer, Gretchen
Hardcover
Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People
Lama, Dalai
Hardcover
Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
Henion, Leigh Ann
Hardcover
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Pember, Mary Annette
Hardcover
Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
Lankford, Andrea
Paperback
The Survivor: How I Made It Through Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter
Lewkowicz, Josef
Hardcover
Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition): Reese's Book Club: Advice from Dear Sugar
Strayed, Cheryl
Paperback