The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers
by Adam Nicolson
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Life itself could never have been sustainable without seabirds. As Adam Nicolson writes: "They are bringers of fertility, the deliverers of life from ocean to land." A global tragedy is unfolding. Even as we are coming to understand them, the number of seabirds on our planet is in freefall, dropping by nearly 70% in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than there were in 1950. Of the ten birds in this audiobook, seven are in decline, at least in part of their range. Extinction stalks show more the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of the seabird colony, rolling around the bays and headlands of high latitudes, will this century become little but a memory.Seabirds have always entranced the human imagination and NYT best-selling author Adam Nicolson has been in love with them all his life: for their mastery of wind and ocean, their aerial beauty and the unmatched wildness of the coasts and islands where every summer they return to breed. The seabird's cry comes from an elemental layer in the story of the world.Over the last couple of decades, modern science has begun to understand their epic voyages, their astonishing abilities to navigate for tens of thousands of miles on featureless seas, their ability to smell their way towards fish and home. Only the poets in the past would have thought of seabirds as creatures riding the ripples and currents of the entire planet, but that is what the scientists are seeing now today. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I unreservedly loved this book. Nicolson has long been fascinated by seabirds, and explains how these birds differ so much in habit and lifestyle from the garden birds with whom many of us are more familiar. Then he takes ten different species to examine in turn. He refers to his personal observations, to scientific research, to history and to literature to build a rounded and fascinating portrait of each species he's chosen. My husband got used to having a daily bulletin of 'today's most fascinating seabird facts' at breakfast each morning, and now he too is reading the book.
Beautifully written, the book is meticulously researched. Yet Nicolson's style is readable and involving, with sometimes detailed data presented in a clear and show more accessible manner. His final chapter, while apparently negative about the future for many of our most loved seabirds ends on a positive note. This was a book I was sorry to have finished. show less
Beautifully written, the book is meticulously researched. Yet Nicolson's style is readable and involving, with sometimes detailed data presented in a clear and show more accessible manner. His final chapter, while apparently negative about the future for many of our most loved seabirds ends on a positive note. This was a book I was sorry to have finished. show less
A set of chapters about different sea birds that nest on the coasts and spend most of their lives at sea. Some of them I'd not be able to distinguish, some pictures were quite useful, a ready reckoner would have been valuable. It covers them life cycle, the latest science but also how they appear and are portrayed in literature and popular culture. So the Albatross has only been considered bad luck to kill one since Coleridge's poem, before that, they were regularly killed for food. Can get a little repetitive, and the final chapter is profoundly depressing for the future of these specialised birds.
An absolute instant classic of a book, which I enjoyed immensely while sitting on a Maine deck watching the seabirds. Nicolson's wide-ranging tales make for delightful reading.
The author looks at research on ten different seabirds, while providing some poetic and literary context for their connections with man and a snapshot of their daily life.
purchased from LRB and cherished from the day it arrived (read Sea Room in 2025 - may have to buy it as a companion)
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Adam Nicolson has been both a publisher and a travel writer, and is the author of many award-winning books. He lives on a farm with his family near Burwash, England
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- Original title
- The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers
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- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (4.44)
- Languages
- English, Polish
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
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