introdUction to the world’s seabirds | 27cluster of individuals can be monitored by a single scanner. That ap-
proach has been successful in the Antarctic where David Ainley co-
ordinated a study of Adélie Penguins.^28 The penguins were ushered over
a weighbridge and past a scanner as they arrived at and departed from
the colony, allowing the weight of food delivered to chicks by identified
chipped penguins to be determined. Even more sophisticated has been
the study of Common Terns led by Peter Becker.^29 The terns nest on six
concrete islands in the harbour of the German coastal town of Wil-
helmshaven. All chicks fledging from these islands since 1992 have been
chipped. Those that survive to return in subsequent years find them-
selves monitored automatically by an electronic surveillance system of
antennas on elevated platforms that remotely record individual atten-
dance throughout the breeding season.
This section has not been comprehensive but it has described the
crucial devices now available. They allow seabirds to be studied as never
before, despite the obstacles imposed by their journeys covering huge
distances across inhospitable seas. Seabird researchers investigating mid-
sized and large species can now map where their study bird goes. They
can combine garnering this positional information with attaching a de-
vice that signals whether it is wet or dry and simultaneously collects
data on depth, sea temperature, and light levels. It would be exaggerat-
ing to claim that a seabird can be more closely monitored than a patient
in intensive care.^30 But the level of understanding of how birds live out
their lives away from the apparent comfort of land is growing in a truly
remarkable manner.
This book describes that growing understanding. From the data, a
picture of mastery emerges. Seabirds are not helpless morsels of life
tossed hither and thither by wind and waves. Rather, they employ strat-
egies that enable them to cover huge distances and detect scattered food
with relative ease, and with the advantage that they are less subject to
day- to- day predation than are landbirds. No wonder seabirds attain an
age of 30 regularly, and 50 sometimes, milestones far beyond the reach
of any everyday garden bird.