JANUARY MONTHLY PROGRAM

Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery

On January 1st, 2014, Dorian Anderson boarded his bicycle for the adventure of a lifetime. His two-wheeled journey was an ecofriendly twist on the Big Year. While his predecessors utilized cars, planes, and boats, Anderson’s goal was to replicate their transcontinental travels without the use of petroleum, a herculean challenge no one before him had accepted. He ultimately survived subzero temperatures, drifting snow, gusting winds, lightning storms, mountainous ascents, dog attacks, crumbling roads, and several accidents. By December 31, he’d amassed 618 bird species across 18,000 miles of riding, totals no one imagined possible when he set off with zero cycling experience. Anderson will speak about the genesis of his bike-birding project, provide a thrilling recount of his travels, highlight the birds he saw, and reveal how his adventure changed his life. His personality and enthusiasm are infectious, and his tales of birding, cycling, and self-discovery will inspire others to venture into the outdoors, take note of the birds around them, and make positive changes in their own lives.

Dorian started birding in his Philadelphia backyard at age seven, included the Delaware Valley and Jersey Shore during his preteens, and attended several of Victor Emanuel’s youth birding camps as a teenager. He envisioned himself as an ornithologist but got distracted by molecular biology and alcohol, so his childhood passion for birds lay comatose until he got sober at age 30. Despite that alcoholism and drug abuse which plagued him through his twenties, he completed a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Stanford, did predoctoral biomedical research at Harvard University, and earned his Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics and Molecular Cell Biology from New York University. He then spent three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular Neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital. Exhausted by the academic rat race and searching for direction, he resigned his postdoctoral position to undertake his Biking for Birds project. Momentum from that life-changing pivot opened many doors including public speaking, travel writing, and tour guiding. He worked in Colombia as a consultant for the National Audubon Society and is currently an international birding guide for Tropical Birding. He is an accomplished bird photographer and has just published his memoir: Under the Influence: Cycling across America in Search of Birds and Recovery.