The Birds

Here in the North Atlantic, our on-board games of "I Spy" have become rathe
limited of late, particularly after the two new rules were introduced of
"Nothing on the boat" and "Nothing beginning with the letter S". Now, if I
were an ornithologist, the world would be my oystercatcher. The diversity
of birds we have seen during our voyage has been amazing. My constant
frustration is that I'm only able to identfy a few of them and then, only
tentatvely. This does not detract from the enjoyment of watching them. Im
reminded of that great little book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" about the
joy of flying felt by these birds and the mastery they show as they swoop
and hover among the waves cannot be explained solely by their desire to
search for food. They're clearly enjoying it. And they're definitely
showing off - whether its to us, or each other, I'm not sure. But it is
quite amusing when they perform some stunt near the boat and hit the
turbulence of the venturi between the main and jib, then it all goes
pear-shaped and they have to perorm some lightning-quick error correction to
avoid a crash and burn.
The most common bird we've seen are Fulmars - brindle-brown back and wings,
grey underside, black head and white chinstrap. They swoop and wheel among
the waves, sometimes carressing the water with a single primary wing
feather, as if gauging height to precision as they turn. We sometimes
encounter them at night, when they're rafted up in litttle groups,
protesting our passage with disgruntled noises as we nod by. We've seen
many other seabirds whose names, I've no idea about, apart from gannets,
which I can just about identify.
But for me, the biggest surprise has been the presence of large numbers of
what seem to be insectivorous birds - certainly one type is of the swift
family, but I don't know if it is a swift, or a relative. Anther is a
little bigger, with wider wings and flies with the characteristics of a
bat - a bit overy "flappy", like a lapwing. We have seen both species since
mid-Atlantic and I assume they are feeding on insects by the flight patterns
they show, darting around above the waves as if in pursuit of unseen
insects. They clearly never land, and rarely approach the water itself,
though I have seen one gliding for some distance, not more than an inch or
so from the water, for some distance, matching its height with the
undulations of the water.
Is there really sufficient insect life in the air above the sea to povide a
sufficient food source for these birds? From their numbers, whatever they
are feeding on must be in plentiful supply. Or have I got it completely
wrong? Help!
Trev