Margaret Atwood, the renowned Canadian author known for works like The Handmaid’s Tale, has donated one million Canadian dollars to the University of Western Ontario to establish the Graeme Gibson Chair in Avian Biology. The donation honors her late partner, Graeme Gibson, a novelist and passionate birdwatcher who passed away in 2019. The chair aims to advance research into how birds adapt, move, and behave in environments that are rapidly changing due to human activity and climate shifts. This gift underscores Atwood’s long-standing commitment to environmental conservation and her personal connection to the natural world. Atwood and Gibson co-founded the Pelee Island Bird Observatory over two decades ago. Located on Pelee Island, the southernmost inhabited point in Canada, the observatory sits at the crossroads of two major bird migration routes. Each spring, the island welcomes over 200 bird species, drawing both scientists and birdwatchers from around the world. While the observatory is still relatively new, it already has a unique charm—some of its lamps remain without lightbulbs. Atwood and Gibson were known for their deep interest in avian life, and even in his later years, when vascular dementia limited his ability to write about birds, Gibson continued to observe them with fascination. Gibson’s love for birds was profound. In his book The Bedside Book of Birds, he wrote about how every bird, regardless of its commonality, deserved attention. “I no longer know their names,” he once told a friend. “But then, they don’t know my name either.” Atwood has carried on his legacy, recently celebrating the opening of the Atwood-Gibson Bird Centre on Pelee Island. The new facility, described as looking like a towel hanging loosely on a clothesline, expands the observatory’s research capabilities and provides a refuge from the tiny, six-legged mites known as chiggers, which are a common nuisance in the area. Atwood has long been an advocate for the protection of birds and their habitats. She highlights the alarming decline in migratory bird populations, with some species, like the blackpoll warbler, losing over 80% of their numbers in the last 50 years. She points to human-caused threats such as window collisions, feral cats, pollution, and habitat destruction as key factors in this decline. While she acknowledges the difficulty of addressing some of these issues, she remains hopeful, emphasizing that humans have the power to make positive changes. “We are part of the natural world,” she says. “It’s your choice of how to be in it.”