PICK OF TODAY’S RADIO

THE ESSAY: LUNDY, FASTNET, IRISH SEA — WALES AND ITS COASTAL WATERS, 10.45PM, RADIO 3

WE TAKE another bracing, windswept trip in this fourth of a week-long series, as the writer Jon Gower takes us to an island off the Welsh coast where Manx shearwaters nest. These strange birds fly low over the water and are elegant in flight, but awkward on land. At sea, they stay silent, but on land at night, they make such a horrible, eerie racket that they are known as devil birds. We also hear about the birds’ rather unpleasant method of selfdefence: spitting a stream of foul-smelling fish oil.