wind and waves | 111do seabirds cope, they have tricks that enable them to exploit the con-
ditions they encounter at sea to save energy and prosper. Storm petrels
pitter- pattering on the sea surface in the depths of 10 m troughs as
mighty Southern Ocean swells tower above are clearly coping, as is the
female Grey- headed Albatross rocketing downwind at over 130 km/h,
blasted homeward to South Georgia by furious tailwinds of 70– 80 km/h.^1
Biologists routinely ask how the behaviours adopted by an animal
could help it save energy. The presumption is that energy saved means
the creature might, for example, be better able to survive foul weather,
or to deliver more food to its chick and enhance the survival chances of
the youngster. Thus this chapter will focus on evidence that, at various
spatial scales from metres to thousands of kilometres, seabirds adjust
their journeys to minimize travel costs. The separate but related ques-
tion of whether they select the most profitable feeding areas to visit will
be the focus of Chapter 8. Inevitably things sometimes go wrong. There
are occasions when a storm strikes and the seabird becomes embroiled
Grey- headed Albatrosses have been recorded sustaining the
astonishing speed of 130 km/h, when driven homeward
by Southern Ocean storms (© Oliver Krüger).