After quitting his executive job, Neil Hayward found himself drifting professionally and personally. He didn't want to travel the world or start a business--but he did suddenly have more time to devote to his longtime passion, birding. As he struggled with depression and his fear of committing to a new romance, Hayward spent more and more time behind his binoculars. He charts his birding adventures--and his almost-accidental pursuit of a record-breaking Big Year--in his memoir, Lost Among the Birds.
Hayward hadn't planned on doing a Big Year, a birder's quest to see as many species as possible in a calendar year. His spur-of-the-moment April start meant he would spend eight months catapulting around the country, sleeping in his car and surviving largely on granola bars. Although the Big Year included endless hours on airplanes and some frustrating near-misses, Hayward lived for the joy he found in sighting each new bird. "The birding was my salt... that essential amino acid I couldn't get from anywhere else," he explains. "It gave me life and reminded me that I was part of life." Along the way, he found community among his fellow birders, and his depression slowly began to lift.
With precise, lovely descriptions of birds and dry, self-deprecating wit, Hayward recounts his journey through unfamiliar terrain both personal and geographical. Birders and non-birders alike will relate to his search for fulfillment and his delight in "the simple joy that comes from seeing the unexpected." --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams