The Seabird's Cry

This book hurled me into a compassionate and respectful understanding of puffins, gannets, fulmars, cormorants, and other seabirds, and their varied and extraordinary relationships with the world ocean and its winds and sea cliffs. It left me aware of huge gaps in my perception of these different worlds, of the otherness and perfection of seabirds, and of my own species' abuse of such wonders. It re-set my standard for beautiful writing, and for appreciating the feeling of standing against a gale above the sea while surrounded by creatures who are truly at home there.

I have followed Adam Nicolson ever since he published his memoirs on the Shiant Islands, a cluster of Hebridean islands, he had inherited from his father. This book is somewhat of a sequel to “Sea Room” and dedicated to the feathered ocean travelers of the north Atlantic. Because I live on the coast myself and only a short drive away from my own bird colonies I was looking very forward to this book. Natural history books can be a bit boring, but Adam Nicolson manages to intertwine his own love for these birds – puffins, gannets, fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, and… show more.

A seabird colony throbs like a beating heart. In the air, on the water, and on the cliffs or grassy slopes, you can sense the push and pull of the birds. I have studied common guillemots [known as common murres in North America] at one such colony — Skomer Island, Wales — each year for almost fifty years. I live and breathe seabirds, and no one has captured the wonder and remarkable biology of this specialized group of birds like Adam Nicolson. This beautifully written book is also a cry for help for seabirds whose populations have more than halved… show more.