Shauna Laurel Jones

Long-tailed duck

Excerpt from my contribution to Into the Red (British Trust for Ornithology, 2022), pp. 28–29.

Now you see them, now you don’t: up for air, and they’re back down again, feathers pressed tight against dense bodies before each plunge into brisk northern seas. Feet large, wings compact, like the other diving ducks; yet their constant disappearing act while foraging earns them the record amongst their peers for most time spent under the surface, a one-to-four ratio of breath to brine. What sleight of wing! For theirs are wings that can – most unusually – propel them through water and dare them down, deep and deeper, to an astonishing fifty-five metres beneath the waves …

Peter Partington, Long-tailed Ducks Displaying, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.