Birding to Change the World Quotes

“Here I was, a stranger in a strange land, a Katrina evacuee—scared and confused, wondering how a tropical bird like me could ever adjust to the cold North and such a radically different culture. But this loud little bird was already helping me bond with neighbors, giving me courage, and making me laugh. He lived half the year in Wisconsin and the other half probably in Mexico or Central America and stopped in the Deep South along the way. He belonged to all these places. And wherever he went, he learned to sing new songs. As I watched him blasting away in my yard, I thought, If he can do it, maybe I can, too.”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life

“Infrasound is another signal that triggers an avian news network—low-frequency ground-transmitted waves produced by volcanoes, earthquakes, waterfalls, storm systems, and tsunamis. Many birds can hear it. We cannot.”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life

“I’ve been particularly struck by the strategies birds use to fiercely defend their home territories. What if humans employed some of these same strategies to protect the places we love?”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life

“Researchers have documented how trees and natural green spaces calm the parasympathetic nervous system, boost the immune system by reducing stress hormones, lower blood pressure, reduce glucose levels among diabetics, and relieve depression. Large medical studies controlled for income have documented that living near a green space like Warner Park can help people live longer and live healthier, with lower rates of obesity and diabetes.10”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life

“And for days and nights she just kept bending, tearing, twisting, pulling, rocking, and stuffing in an ancient rhythm of mothering, a numbing repetition of a series of motions whether you’re a breastfeeding mammal or a carnivorous avian.”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life

“For the first time in my life I was viscerally connected to the nonhuman creatures around me.”
― Trish O'Kane, Birding to Change the World: An Uplifting Memoir that Explores what Birds Can Teach us about Life