Some seabirds—gannets, for instance—nest in dense aggregations, but not albatrosses. One is seated perhaps 20 m from the observation but where I am ensconced, and another four or five are visible at greater distances. This year the young, non-breeding albatrosses—Burns calls them “unemployed birds”—are returning four to six weeks earlier than usual. As she tells me this, an albatross wheels past outside, its wings long and straight as any glider’s.