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77 reviews for:
The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers
Adam Nicolson
4.34 AVERAGE
77 reviews for:
The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers
Adam Nicolson
4.34 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail
I started reading this book when we were on holiday in Northumberland and after a boat trip out to the Farne Islands where Puffins nest in the Spring. I saw that one of my Goodreads friends was reading this and that inspired me to read it too. I always read fiction so this was a real departure but I am so pleased I persisted. I will never look at sea birds in the same way again from the amazing Albatross flying at ninety miles an hour and flying tens of thousands of miles a year to the incredible tubenose birds who find fish thousands of miles away by detecting one part per billion of chemicals given off by plankton being eaten by krill. Birds that are mostly long lived and who mostly mate for life but in some species incredible stories of sibling murder, cannibalism and even hoodlum teenager birds who mug and rape neighbouring young birds. This book describes sea bird behaviour through reporting ornithological research, personal observation, mythology, poetry and cultural traditions associated with living near and on sea birds but all in a very readable and engaging way. Incredible book, lovely photographs. Of course there is the story of the devastation being done to sea bird numbers by warming oceans, long line fishing, plastic and other human activity and the real risk of extinction to large varieties of species. The author finished on a positive story about the return of birds to the Shaints after the culling of the rat population that had been systematically destroying bird eggs. Really memorable book and worth reading.
So unbelievably beautiful.
Lyrical, literary, scientific, hopeful, ever aware of the catastrophe facing sea birds.
I learnt so much but more than that, Nicolson made me FEEL so much.
At times, yes, it was flowery and fluffy and I was lost in his (really quite posh) prose - I mean, he literally owns a bunch of islands - but it was really, really beautiful and such a good read.
Lyrical, literary, scientific, hopeful, ever aware of the catastrophe facing sea birds.
I learnt so much but more than that, Nicolson made me FEEL so much.
At times, yes, it was flowery and fluffy and I was lost in his (really quite posh) prose - I mean, he literally owns a bunch of islands - but it was really, really beautiful and such a good read.
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
Beautifully written and informative, this book sheds the light on lives of 10 different sea birds, drawing attention to the changes brought about by climate change. Emotional and educational, a must read for all bird enthusiasts.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
Full disclosure, I love birds. And I discovered my love of birds during a visit to a colony of Atlantic puffins. Undoubtedly, some of my significant affection for this book is tied up in my affection for the animals it describes, and for the wild, deserted (of humans, anyway) cliffs where they visit shore.
Adam Nicolson clearly loves these birds as well. He discovered his love for them as a youth on a small group of Hebridean islands that he now--lucky man--owns. His book dedicates a chapter apiece to ten of his favorite species, following them around the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean as he explores their lives and habits, and uncovers the history of human knowledge of the various birds. He often leans on depictions by others to characterize the birds--Melville and Coleridge for the albatross, for instance, or Milton on the cormorant--but his own prose stands up robustly to the great poets. He says of my beloved puffins for example, that they are
In addition to fine writing from many sources, Nicolson incorporates all the science you could hope for. The technological advances of the last few decades have enabled humans to discover the seaborne and airborne lives of birds who were previously only known from the earthbound perspective of their flightless chroniclers. Scientists now track birds thousands of mile across the oceans and hundreds of feet below their surfaces. Nicolson argues persuasively that we underestimate the individual intelligence and personalities of his subjects, and provides a lens through which to get a hint of how the birds experience the world. He also provides a chapter that focuses on the science of a warming, plastic-infested planet and how we humans are remaking--indeed, have remade--the world the birds experience, often but not always to their detriment.
The book is unflinching and there are moments that broke my little bird-loving heart: "Nature, red in tooth and claw," after all. Nicolson respects the good and bad of the birds, and presents them both movingly. He also clearly remains hopeful and effectively shares that hope with his reader. In the end, The Seabird's Cry leaves its reader a little closer to these beautiful, awful, confounding occupants of sky, sea, and shore, and much the better for that new proximity.
Adam Nicolson clearly loves these birds as well. He discovered his love for them as a youth on a small group of Hebridean islands that he now--lucky man--owns. His book dedicates a chapter apiece to ten of his favorite species, following them around the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean as he explores their lives and habits, and uncovers the history of human knowledge of the various birds. He often leans on depictions by others to characterize the birds--Melville and Coleridge for the albatross, for instance, or Milton on the cormorant--but his own prose stands up robustly to the great poets. He says of my beloved puffins for example, that they are
not clowns but beauties, Ice Age survivors, scholar-gypsies of the Atlantic, their minds on an everlasting swing between island and sea, burrow and voyage, parent and child, the oscillating nomad-masters of an unpacific ocean.
In addition to fine writing from many sources, Nicolson incorporates all the science you could hope for. The technological advances of the last few decades have enabled humans to discover the seaborne and airborne lives of birds who were previously only known from the earthbound perspective of their flightless chroniclers. Scientists now track birds thousands of mile across the oceans and hundreds of feet below their surfaces. Nicolson argues persuasively that we underestimate the individual intelligence and personalities of his subjects, and provides a lens through which to get a hint of how the birds experience the world. He also provides a chapter that focuses on the science of a warming, plastic-infested planet and how we humans are remaking--indeed, have remade--the world the birds experience, often but not always to their detriment.
The book is unflinching and there are moments that broke my little bird-loving heart: "Nature, red in tooth and claw," after all. Nicolson respects the good and bad of the birds, and presents them both movingly. He also clearly remains hopeful and effectively shares that hope with his reader. In the end, The Seabird's Cry leaves its reader a little closer to these beautiful, awful, confounding occupants of sky, sea, and shore, and much the better for that new proximity.
informative
medium-paced
medium-paced
This book describes 10 different families of seabirds. I particularly liked learning about the study that showed that some albatrosses and shy and some are bold, and what this means for their behaviour and survival rates.