Hello, there are friends, and welcome to episode 296 of just the zoo of us. This week, I am joined

by a marine biologist and seabird Wrangler for a review of the ocean's bravest little water walkers,

Leach's Storm Petrel. We swap whale watching stories, discuss things like snot gutters, and lost

feet and baby chicks that look like

little sootsprites. And our guest shares with us some firsthand insight into life among the

seabirds, from falling asleep to a lullaby of screams, to a surprising assessment of the

smell situation.

Just the Zoo of Us presents Leach's Storm Petrel with Melina Watson. Hi there, everybody. It's Ellen Weatherford with Just the Zoo of Us, your favorite animal review podcast. I'm so excited this week. We have a new friend to talk about a little fella, a little guy,

that I find very, very charming and that I think very many people have never

heard of. And so I think this is going to be a fun treat for a lot of people. We have a brand

new friend this week. This is Melina Watson. Say hi, Malina. Hi, everyone. Nice to be here. So nice to talk to

you. Melina, what are your pronouns? She, her. Thank you so much. You do some really, really cool work

with some very fascinating birds. Melina, what got you into the work that you do with birds?

It was kind of a long and circuitous route. I started studying marine biology, and I wasn't

really sure what I wanted to do. So I kind of went through school.

I worked on a whale watching boat for a couple summers, which was really great.

That sounds like a really fun job.

It really was.

You got to see some really amazing things.

Even just going out and seeing your typical, like, a minky whale out here is like really

common, but it still never fails to amaze.

It's like that's a 30-foot whale, like how many people are going to get to see that in

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