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The Gull Next Door: A Portrait of a Misunderstood Bird
A uniquely personal meditation on Britain's gulls by one of today's leading wildlife writers
From a distance, gulls are beautiful symbols of freedom over the oceanic wilderness. Up close, however, they can be loud, aggressive and even violent. Yet gulls fascinate birdwatchers, and seafarers regard them with respect and affection. The Gull Next Door explores the natural history of gulls and their complicated relationship with humans.
Marianne Taylor grew up in an English seaside town where gulls are ever present. Today, she is a passionate advocate for these underappreciated birds. In this book, Taylor looks at the different gull species and sheds light on all aspects of the lives of gulls--how they find food, raise families, socialize and migrate across sea, coastland and countryside. She discusses the herring gull, Britain's best-known and most persecuted gull species, whose numbers are declining at an alarming rate. She looks at gulls in legend, fiction and popular culture, and explains what we can do to protect gull populations around the world.
The Gull Next Door reveals deeper truths about these remarkable birds. They are thinkers and innovators, devoted partners and parents. They lead long lives and often indulge their powerful drive to explore and travel. But for all these natural gifts, many gull species are struggling to survive in the wild places they naturally inhabit, which is why they are now exploiting the opportunities of human habitats. This book shows how we might live more harmoniously with these majestic yet misunderstood birds.
From a distance, gulls are beautiful symbols of freedom over the oceanic wilderness. Up close, however, they can be loud, aggressive and even violent. Yet gulls fascinate birdwatchers, and seafarers regard them with respect and affection. The Gull Next Door explores the natural history of gulls and their complicated relationship with humans.
Marianne Taylor grew up in an English seaside town where gulls are ever present. Today, she is a passionate advocate for these underappreciated birds. In this book, Taylor looks at the different gull species and sheds light on all aspects of the lives of gulls--how they find food, raise families, socialize and migrate across sea, coastland and countryside. She discusses the herring gull, Britain's best-known and most persecuted gull species, whose numbers are declining at an alarming rate. She looks at gulls in legend, fiction and popular culture, and explains what we can do to protect gull populations around the world.
The Gull Next Door reveals deeper truths about these remarkable birds. They are thinkers and innovators, devoted partners and parents. They lead long lives and often indulge their powerful drive to explore and travel. But for all these natural gifts, many gull species are struggling to survive in the wild places they naturally inhabit, which is why they are now exploiting the opportunities of human habitats. This book shows how we might live more harmoniously with these majestic yet misunderstood birds.
- GenresNatureNonfictionBirds
192 pages, Hardcover
Published October 27, 2020
10 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 29, 2022
The author's knowledge about and love of gulls shines through. But I came away feeling this book missed a lot of opportunities, on two fronts.
First of all, the author's first-hand accounts of encounters with gulls, and her depth of knowledge about their lives and behaviours, are all delightful to read. But there are not enough of them to fill a whole 185 pages, and they are padded out with other stuff, some of which she seems to have found by Googling. I do not need to read another person's description of a photograph they've found on Wikipedia, for example, nor a series of paraphrases of local newspaper stories about delinquent gulls. The paragraph explaining that the 1980s synthpop band A Flock Of Seagulls didn't really write songs about gulls was a low. Removing the padding would cut the book in half and make for a much crisper and livelier read.
Second, there are plenty of descriptions of photos – not just images found on Wikipedia (thankfully) but also the author's own photography – but there are no photographic illustrations. I guess colour images are expensive to reproduce and perhaps beyond the publisher's budget. The book is illustrated with the author's own black-and-white drawings, and they are charming, but they do not relate directly to the text. This is especially frustrating because the author spends a lot of time describing gulls' visual appearance, often with a level of technical detail that's hard to follow without a visual aid. Why not include black-and-white drawings demonstrating, say, the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary feathers, which the author so painstakingly describes in words?
In the end, I'm not sure who the book is for. If you're a committed larophile, there's nothing here you don't already know. If (like me) you're interested in gulls but not knowledgeable, you'll find some great background information in this book, but it won't help you identify different species in practice because the illustrations are unsystematic and the verbal descriptions are quite dry. And if you like reading newspaper stories about naughty gulls, you already know how to use Google.
First of all, the author's first-hand accounts of encounters with gulls, and her depth of knowledge about their lives and behaviours, are all delightful to read. But there are not enough of them to fill a whole 185 pages, and they are padded out with other stuff, some of which she seems to have found by Googling. I do not need to read another person's description of a photograph they've found on Wikipedia, for example, nor a series of paraphrases of local newspaper stories about delinquent gulls. The paragraph explaining that the 1980s synthpop band A Flock Of Seagulls didn't really write songs about gulls was a low. Removing the padding would cut the book in half and make for a much crisper and livelier read.
Second, there are plenty of descriptions of photos – not just images found on Wikipedia (thankfully) but also the author's own photography – but there are no photographic illustrations. I guess colour images are expensive to reproduce and perhaps beyond the publisher's budget. The book is illustrated with the author's own black-and-white drawings, and they are charming, but they do not relate directly to the text. This is especially frustrating because the author spends a lot of time describing gulls' visual appearance, often with a level of technical detail that's hard to follow without a visual aid. Why not include black-and-white drawings demonstrating, say, the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary feathers, which the author so painstakingly describes in words?
In the end, I'm not sure who the book is for. If you're a committed larophile, there's nothing here you don't already know. If (like me) you're interested in gulls but not knowledgeable, you'll find some great background information in this book, but it won't help you identify different species in practice because the illustrations are unsystematic and the verbal descriptions are quite dry. And if you like reading newspaper stories about naughty gulls, you already know how to use Google.
April 1, 2021
Very informational book about gulls. I see them pretty much everyday, but didn’t know much about them, and how many different types there are. This was a Christmas gift to help me embrace the gull. I must say after reading this I feel a bit more sympathetic towards them and their plight but I’m still pretty intimidated by some of the larger specimens that fly around Brighton
July 9, 2023
This is a strange little book indeed containing almost too much information about gull identification and then not enough information about everything else, but I enjoyed it all the same. I was overjoyed to find a book about gulls at all, and this one is quirky and interesting. Also,the quips about stealing chips made me titter.
October 21, 2023
I looked forward to reading this but was a bit disappointed in the end. It's thought provoking and engaging in places but overall I don't know what exactly it was trying to be. It said it was a deeply personal account and the title suggested this, but as others have said it gets bogged down in content that you would know if you were already a larophile and wouldn't care about if you weren't. I'm a larophile and when it got down to 'Great Lake Gull' hybrids in America even I felt it was excessively nerdy.
Again as others have already said it could have done with a lot of the researched stuff being taken out and been better for it. If you do want to read about gull nerds and what makes them tick I'd recommend Landfill by Tim Dee rather than this.
Again as others have already said it could have done with a lot of the researched stuff being taken out and been better for it. If you do want to read about gull nerds and what makes them tick I'd recommend Landfill by Tim Dee rather than this.
July 3, 2022
This was am interesting read, once I got past the introductory chapters where the author spent a fair bit of time describing the plumage of various species. It had some fun stories about how far gull-watchers will go to spot a rare species, as well as some good reflections on how humans can learn to share space with wildlife.
March 24, 2025
3 and 1/2 stars out of 5 for this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews