Birding under the influence : cycling across America in search of birds and recovery

'What an incredible story! Dorian’s adventure is an inspiration for birders and non-birders alike.' David Lindo, author of The Urban BirderAt a personal and professional crossroad, a man resets his life and finds sobriety, love and 618 bird species, cycling his way to a very Big Year. In Birding Under the Influence, Dorian Anderson, a neuroscience researcher on a pressure-filled life trajectory, walks away from the world of elite institutions, research labs and academic publishing.

In doing so, he falls in love and realises he has freed himself to embrace his lifelong passion for birding. A North American Big Year – a continent-spanning adventure in which a birder attempts to see as many species as possible in twelve months – is a massive undertaking under any circumstances.

Breaking the record on a bicycle takes another degree of obsession. And doing all that while sustaining sobriety? That’s next level altogether. As Dorian pedals across the country, describing the birds he sees, he confronts the challenges of long-distance cycling: treacherous weather, punctured tires, speeding cars and injury.

He encounters eccentric characters, blistering blacktop, dreary hotel rooms, snarling dogs and an endless sea of smoking tailpipes.

He also confronts his past struggles with alcohol, drugs, and risky behaviours that began in secondary school and followed him into adulthood. Birding Under the Influence is a candid, honest look at Dorian’s double life of academic accomplishment and addiction.

While his story of recovery is simultaneously poignant and inspiring, it is ultimately his love of birds and nature that provides the scaffolding to build a new, radically different life. "An uplifting and hopeful memoir and social commentary about healing . . . [Birding Under the Influence] is an interesting exploration of the extreme ends that one man went to to overcome his twin demons of alcohol and drug addiction by redirecting his addictive Type-A personality into more healthy pursuits. . . . [It also] provide[s] an interesting glimpse into regional American subcultures."—Forbes