Seabirds: A Natural History.—Anthony J. Gaston. 2004. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 224 pp. ISBN: 0-300-10406-5. $45.00 (cloth).
With the discriminating insight of a seasoned naturalist, a dash of philosopher and the panache of a journalist, Tony Gaston has crafted an engaging and easily readable book about seabirds and their natural history. In doing so, he bared some of the many motivations that rouse people to study marine birds.
Ten chapters guide the reader through the varied qualities of seabirds. Contrasting comparisons with terrestrial birds help in clarifying the essence and diversity of marine species. Gaston overviews their taxonomy, diversity, and plumage, their adaptations and constraints, their feeding behavior, distributions, and assemblages. These treatments bring home the pervasive influences of geography and oceanography in shaping seabird lives and life histories.
Large-scale oceanographic patterns bring home the inter-relatedness of these sea creatures and their ocean environment. Eastern boundary currents and the forage fishes therein that drive their food webs are clearly globally important areas for seabirds and other marine organisms. The relative absence of pursuit-diving seabirds in tropical waters is associated with an inverse relationship between water temperature and the burst or escape speeds of fishes that the birds might prey upon. The tropical oceans in turn, create marine barriers to pursuit-divers at high latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Fossil auks have not been found in the southern hemisphere, or fossil penguins in the northern one.
Considerations of seabird foraging and migratory behavior, including the transequatorial feats of the shearwaters, exemplify that while being bird-brained or more likely because of it, seabirds are spatial geniuses. In human analogy, they are Olympian players one and all. Gaston rounds out the book with chapters on coloniality and its consequence and population regulation. His closing plea to practitioners is for more incisive theoretical tests of empirical data. These efforts are needed to advance synthesis and to integrate behavioral tactics and evolutionary strategies within the context of a pervasive, dynamic, and unforgiving ocean environment. Non-Olympians are quickly cut from the gene pool by Mother Nature, a beneficent but not particularly indulgent coach.
Some topics are given rather cursory treatment (e.g., mating systems), but are informatively dealt with. When one is striving for the big picture as Gaston is, some things of necessity have to fall to the wayside or an encyclopedic mode ensues and bogs progression.
Besides his knowledge, thoughts, and challenging (but user friendly) conjectures about seabird biology, Gaston also treats the reader with some stories of his personal experiences. One I especially enjoyed was a self-deprecating account about seeing a gadfly petrel in a rock video while working out at health club and the consequences that followed therefrom.
Seabirds: A Natural History is a comfortable, well-produced book for which Yale University Press is to be commended. The photographs by the author, John Chardine, and Tim Lash are striking and give a real vibrancy to the lives of marine birds. In this era of modern publishing, however, it would improve the relevance, impact, and flow of the text to intersperse the stunning color photographs throughout the text where most relevant rather than to bulk 16 pages of them between pages 64 and 65.
All in all, a fine book and an engaging read. Buy one, you won't be disappointed, and if you have that certain mindset of the curious naturalist combined with the ever-enchanting lure of the sea, you may even be inspired.
