Description
Book SynopsisA lavish celebration of the seabirds of the British Isles.
Seabirds are the living links between land, air and sea. They enjoy a freedom that even humans, with all our technological assistance, can barely imagine. Many species travel mind-boggling distances across the length and breadth of our planet before returning to land to breed in large, deafening and confusingly crowded colonies. Yet within this commotion each mated pair forms a bond of extreme closeness and tenderness that survives separation each winter and may persist for decades.
The long and geologically varied coastline of the British Isles provides homes for internationally important numbers of breeding seabirds. Visiting their colonies is always unforgettable, whether they are cliff-faces packed with Guillemots, islands white-capped by clustered Gannets on their nests, flat beaches crowded with screaming Arctic Terns or seaside rooftops overlaid with a second townscape of nesting gulls. The chang
Trade Review
A superb new book...packed with fascinating information on how the birds around our coast are faring. * Scotland Outdoors *
This wonderful book is an inspiring, new resource for sea-birdwatchers of all abilities and interest and deserves a place in the home of every birder. * Surf Birds *
Marianne Taylor does an excellent job of providing evocative and informative descriptions of every species...the text is greatly enhanced by superb photographs. * BBC Wildlife *
Brilliant...excellent for any birder's Christmas stocking. * Bird Watching *
Table of Contents
Introduction Seaducks Eider Common Scoter Red-breasted Merganser Other seaducks Divers and grebes Red-throated Diver Black-throated Diver Great Crested Grebe Slavonian Grebe Other divers and grebes Tubenoses Fulmar Manx Shearwater European Storm-petrel Leach’s Storm-petrel Other tubenoses Gannets, cormorants and relatives Gannet Cormorant Shag Other related species Phalaropes Grey Phalarope Skuas Arctic Skua Great Skua Other skuas Gulls Kittiwake Mediterranean Gull Black-headed Gull Common Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Herring Gull Yellow-legged Gull Great Black-backed Gull Other gulls Terns Little Tern Sandwich Tern Roseate Tern Common Tern Arctic Tern Other terns Auks Guillemot Razorbill Black Guillemot Puffin Other auks Recommended reading Bibliography Acknowledgements Photographic credits Index