The Seabirds Cry, Adam Nicolson
The Seabirds Cry, Adam Nicolson
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The Seabird's Cry
The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers

Author: Adam Nicolson

Narrator: Dugald Bruce Lockhart

Unabridged: 9 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/06/2018


Synopsis

"Sounding appropriately David Attenborough-esque, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart narrates this in-depth look at the lives of 10 species of seabirds." — AudioFile Magazine

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 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.

About Adam Nicolson

Adam Nicolson is the author of many books on history, landscape, and great literature. He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the W. H. Heinemann Award, and the Ondaatje Prize. His books include The Life Between the Tides and Why Homer Matters. He lives on a farm in Sussex.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on May 21, 2019

I will start by saying that I am a scientist, in fact a seabird ecologist, and I came in to reading this book with a certain level of expectance – and yes, bias – so my review may not concern the general reader; but I have endeavoured to be as fair as possible. Nicolson is clearly passionate about hi......more

Goodreads review by Kara on September 20, 2018

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......more

Goodreads review by Jason on October 12, 2019

For me my knowledge of seabirds isn't up to much, unless you put in a large amount of effort then you're not going to see them or even hear the mad cacophony that they produce during their get-togethers. The Puffin has gotta be one of the birds you must see, they've got so much character...one of th......more


Quotes

"Sounding appropriately David Attenborough-esque, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart narrates this in-depth look at the lives of 10 species of seabirds. Part natural history and part history of how humans have interacted with and been captivated by puffins, gannets, albatrosses, and more, Nicolson's lyrical book is well served by Bruce-Lockhart's steady reading." -AudioFile


Awards

  • Boston Globe Best Books of the Year