Turning to Birds by Lili Taylor

I am not big on celebrity writing as a rule, but I enjoyed this, partly because I think all things bird have a way with me, and partly because it contains a nice collection of observations and wisdom that it behooves us all to pay attention to. She starts off by making the point that as an actor of several decades length she knows how to look and how to listen. She’s been trained to use these skills to give outstanding, grounded performances that move her audience. Here she writes about how she’s applied these and other actorly skills to learning to know the birds around her, whether she’s on the job in New Mexico, a newbie at a large birding festival, or simply walking in her neighborhood in Brooklyn. But that’s not all. Like any good essayist, Taylor effortlessly connects the personal to the universal, in this case going from bird observation to major conservation issues. Birds are both the feature and the bug in this case--they are worthy in and of themselves, and they are also a barometer of what is happening in the world around us. This is well worth your time to both read and think about. The author has also used her notoriety for good--to promote increased awareness of the changing environment and how that is affecting birds--and since we share the same environments, ourselves.