Learning the Birds: A Midlife Adventure

This book is an exploration of midlife told through the author’s introduction to birding. Bard College writer in residence Rogers (My Reach) skillfully brings listeners along on her birding explorations., from the Catskills to Arizona and Alaska. As her relationship with a birding mentor grows, so does her understanding of the birding world and the related seminal figures and events around birding. She introduces Frank M. Chapman, originator of the “Christmas Bird Count,” who transformed the grisly practice of killing as many birds as possible on Christmas Day to counting as many; and Nathan Leopold, of “Leopold and Loeb” infamy, who was also an accomplished birder and expert on the Kirtland’s Warbler. Rosemary Benson narrates with a soothing and lyrical voice, evoking the quiet and calm of the natural world where the birds and birders converge.