Who needs penguins when we've got razorbills?

I loved watching the penguins on BBC One last week, and the inventive use of penguin-shaped cameras to get close-up as never before.

(Who can resist penguins?)

In the same week, it was shocking to read more details about the pollution incident on our own south coast and the seabirds which were affected.

The birds which were found washed up on our shores were mostly guillemots, with smaller numbers of razorbills. They're both members of the auk family - which is as close as we get to penguins in the northern hemisphere - which lay their eggs in precarious cliff locations around our rocky northern and western coasts.

Here's a fabulous video of a razorbill in action. It's rare to see this behaviour because usually, they just don't do it where we can see it! After the breeding season, guillemots and razorbills head out far out to sea to spend the winter months bobbing around on the ocean wave.

This bird was filmed in Florida after weather conditions pushed lots of razorbills close to shore (the same species breed along the Atlantic coast of North America too).

Though the birds are pretty ungainly when they're shuffling around on their cliff ledges, or whirring through the air, they have a beautiful turn of speed underwater and their streamlined shape comes into its own.

Let's show some appreciation for our northern hemisphere penguins!