Ah, the seashore! Such a romantic and exciting place to visit. Where else can you get sand kicked in your face by a bully on the beach? Where else are you as likely to welcome radiation from space to scorch your flesh.

And where else but on the seashore can you start a small,

woman-owned business selling seashells?

The coast beckons us with not just the sound of crashing waves, but also the sounds of birds,

like the iconic call of the herring gull, and the beautiful grunting

calls of cormorants.

We find all sorts of birds where the land meets the sea.

Sandpipers, plovers, gulls, pelicans, gannets, raptors, puffins, and more.

The mixture of species you encounter on the coast varies by season, habitat, and region.

In many places around the world, birding on the coast can be super fun and rewarding.

Wave-battered rocky headlands and sandy beaches are two of the important habitats used by birds in coastal

areas. Patches of rocky and sandy shore are often found side by side, alternating

along even a short stretch of coastline. But each of these two habitats is quite different.

Each offers birds a unique combination of resources, opportunities, and challenges.

Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

This episode, which is number 104, is all about rocky coastlines and sandy beaches, and the ways birds use them as habitat. Different physical,

geological processes create and maintain these two environments. And those processes influence

which kinds of organisms can thrive there, from kelp, crabs, snails, and barnacles to fish mammals and birds. Today we'll start

by looking at the physical properties of rocky coasts and sandy beaches, and we'll see how

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