Discovering Arctic terns
Discovering Arctic terns
The Sea Swallow and the Humpback Whale is an overlapping tale of challenge, determination and extraordinary animal instinct. But my experience of meeting a ‘sea swallow’, or Arctic tern was also challenging…. I visited the remote National Trust Reserve on the Farne Islands in Northumbria to see these amazingly beautiful birds for myself and came in for a shock. They dive bomb visitors’ heads relentlessly in aggressive defence of their nests. As we hunched down to escape their sharp, cutting beaks, Trust wardens talked of bloodied heads and hard hats! My story of the Arctic tern and the humpback whale’s epic migrations are stunningly illustrated by artist Gerry Turley (book spread below).
