Book review – Birding to Change the World
Birding to Change the World: a Memoir – by Trish O’Kane (Harper Collins 2025)
The author, a journalist with extensive experience reporting on human rights issues in South America, discovered the benefits of bird watching after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans in August 2005. Despite being set in the USA, this is a really interesting read with the author describing her journey discovering the restorative power of nature, and specifically of observing birds. From attending introductory biology courses her fascination led her to research the relationships between the communities, human and avian, in her local park. Her brutally honest account of the challenges of setting up a youth nature group and the battles with the local administration to protect the resource are refreshing; we can probably all relate to her struggles. Many of us are involved in trying to inspire young people’s interest in and care for nature and the mentoring approach, linking undergraduate students and school children, she implemented, is a particularly interesting approach. She achieved her PhD, got the annual 4th of July firework display cancelled by demonstrating the level of pollution and disturbance caused to wildlife, and is now teaching, passing on the practical skills she’s learnt to students. Her background as a social justice journalist in conflict zones provides a refreshingly different perspective to the challenges of environmental education and advocacy for the value of an urban park and access to nature for local people.