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A Sailor Finds Companionship with Birds II
"... more ancient mariners than I..."
© Brechin Morgan (painting)
Sailor and artist, Brechin Morgan, circumnavigated the globe - solo. Alone on the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, he welcomed the companionship of this Swallow-tailed Gull, flying off of the bow stay in front of the boat … like a little shadow of moonlight floating back and forth, almost all night long. Brechin saw other birds on his voyage, too. He says, "They were friends in the middle of the void. Amazing visitors - I couldn’t understand how they managed to get 1,500 miles from the nearest piece of rock and survive. But obviously they were more ancient mariners than I would ever imagine being."
BirdNote®
A Sailor Finds Companionship with Birds - II
With Brechin Morgan
Written by Todd Peterson
This is BirdNote.
[Gentle slapping of waves against a hull]
Sailor and artist, Brechin Morgan, circumnavigated the globe - solo. Alone on the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, he welcomed the companionship of a Swallow-tailed Gull.
“There was this bird that came to visit me in the morning…kind of flew around me…and then flew off. But in the evening it came back. And I remember coming up a number of times at night to check my bearings…and the set of the sails. And the bird was flying off of the bow stay in front of the boat…like a little shadow of moonlight floating back and forth, almost all night long. This happened for a number of days in a row. [pause]...There’s this loneliness that happens when you’re far at sea and I felt I had a companion. I felt I had a friend. I tried to let it know that it was welcome as much as you can when you talk to a bird at sea. I always expressed my happiness to see him. It was a particularly comforting presence…”
[Call of Swallow-tailed Gull]
Brechin saw other birds on his voyage too.
“They were friends in the middle of the void. Amazing visitors that I couldn’t understand how they managed to get 1,500 miles from the nearest piece of rock and survive. But obviously they were more ancient mariners than I would ever imagine being. …Whether I made those birds as happy as they made me I’ll have no idea. [Laughs] But they did make me very happy.” [Call of Swallow-tailed Gull]
You can see some of Morgan’s paintings of his voyage, on our website, BirdNote.org.
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Call of Swallow-tailed Gull [114007] at xeno-canto recorded by Eric Defonso.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org May 2018 Narrator: Mary McCann Marantz V Tracks 486, 492, 498
ID# morganb-02-2014-05-14 morganb-02
Todd Peterson
Writer
Mary McCann
NarratorSights & Sounds
