Nature & Wildlife: Lessons from the Sea

Whether you live close to the ocean, or like to dream about it, Catherine Jardine’s recommendations will challenge you to consider sea creatures in a different way.

Recommendation: The Seabird's Cry, Adam Nicolson

Few species fascinate me the way seabirds do. A tiny 40g (less than a granola bar!) Storm-Petrel happily makes its home in the frigid Antarctic. Dancing among the waves in places where I would succumb to the elements in mere moments. An Albatross navigates 70% of the planet’s surface, devoid of discernible (to me) landmarks, and cruises back to exactly the same small speck of land to breed. Gulls, so often overlooked in urban life, are perhaps the most universally adaptable of all bird groups. When I guide, be it in British Columbia, the Galapagos or Antarctica, the seabirds always capture my attention and fascination.

Their lives and ecology are so very antithetical to our own and only in recent years, with advancing technology, have we been able to learn more about their journeys and behaviours on land, in the air and beneath the waves. This book is a poetic and entertaining tour of various seabirds. With each chapter focused on a different set of species you can dive (forgive the pun) into each account as you encounter these amazing species in your travels or imagination.
In my Queue for summer: The Extreme Life of the Sea, Stephen R Palumbi and Anthony R. Palumbi