Hints on Birding from an Alaska Cruise Ship

My posts are a good starting point for birders taking an Alaska cruise. I began my planning by using some excellent resources (and I would recommend them all):

• An excellent trip report by Jim Holmes. There are other trip reports about birding Alaska via a cruise ship. Jim Holmes discusses birding from the ship with a scope, delineating specific seabirds he was able to see. Very informative and well-worth reading.
• Birder’s Guide to Alaska by George C. West. In addition to reading about our specific ports, there was also excellent information about islands we would be passing as well as “tips” about birding in the Gulf of Alaska. Peruse the book carefully and thoroughly. You might even find treasures I missed.
• Birdfinder: A Birder’s Guide to Planning North American Trips by Jerry A. Cooper. Their chapter on birding Alaska is for June (exactly when we were there). It offers information regarding what birds you can find, specific directions, and a feel for a birding trip with fits and starts.
• Birder’s Guide to Washington by Hal Opperman (for our day in Victoria, BC). We simply photocopied the section on Victoria. FYI, since our focus here was the Sky Lark I emailed anyone and everyone I could find with links to birding in Victoria until I got a reply letting us know they were best seen at the fields around the airport.
• Guide to the Birds of Alaska by Robert H. Armstrong (as an adjunct to our primary use of Sibley’s field guide). I liked Armstrong’s book for its written information more than the limited photos of the different birds. It gave me seasonal and regional likelihoods for seeing specific birds, as well as excellent written descriptions to help with identification.
• Alaska Atlas and Gazetteer by DeLorme We used this in conjunction with the navigational channel’s latitude and longitude readings on our television (also available in the Crow’s Nest Lounge and the Explorer’s Cafe). Specifically, we were interested in the times we were going to pass certain breeding areas, such as the Barren Islands on the way to Kodiak, or when we were going to enter certain bodies of water.
I’m assuming the posts tell about birding in specific ports or on specific excursions. In this post I’m going to expound specifically on birding from the actual cruise ship, something Holmes does well.

We were on Holland America’s ms Amsterdam, a reasonably-sized ship holding 1380 passengers. The ship had 11 decks (including the lowest deck with no cabins and the “partial” top deck called the Sports Deck).

My first suggestion is to know thy ship! We explored the ship and, even then, found new and wonderful places to set up our scope later in the cruise.

Specific to the ms Amsterdam, you can find a deck plan here and here’s what we learned:
Main Deck: If you go to the stern of the ship there’s an area close to the water. The view off the back requires a high setting on the tripod because of the solid wall under the railing. There’s also some vibration from the engine below, making scoping difficult at times. However, on a cold day there’s some heat coming up from the opening to the engine room making cold days a bit less cold.



Lower Promenade Deck: The walkway goes completely around the ship here. However, the area at the bow is blocked (I assume against the winds). There are decent views off the sides and stern of the ship. Again, the tripod needs to be set a bit higher to clear the railing.



We didn’t explore the areas between the Promenade and the Verandah decks, so I’ll jump to:
Navigation Deck: We didn’t discover this jewel until quite late in the cruise. If you walk through the hallways to the stern of the ship, you can go out onto an open area with open railing. Here you can comfortably sit in the deck chairs and bird comfortably. We even took some blankets from the Lido Deck on a chilly evening.



Lido Deck: We settled on this as our favorite place to set up the scope and bird. We were able to see off the sides of the ship as well as to its back. We were able to see ahead of the ship a bit, spotting birds as we approached them so we could get a good bead on them as we passed.



Sports: We walked up to the Sports Deck from the port (left) side of the ship when it was getting nasty and windy out. We tucked ourselves in behind the tennis court enclosure and set the scope to view over the railing. It was still chilly, the the enclosure broke the wind beautifully while we were still able to get clear views to the front and side.



We never went up to the Sky Deck.

As for the experience of Pelagic birding (our first), especially without a guide, it was a learning curve. Here’s what we learned.

You’re not going to see most of the birds with your naked eye. Our joking rule was, “If you can see it with your naked eye, it’s an Albatross.” So use your binoculars to scan the water!

We were lucky there were two of us. One of us could stay on the bird while the other tried to get on it with the scope. I’d say we had about a sixty to seventy percent rate for success on this. Eventually we found it was just easier to take turns scanning the water with the scope.

It takes time, but you’ll develop a skill for positioning the scope so birds will come into view as you switch to the next person (taking into account the mutual movement of the birds and the ship).
Study your field guide before you travel (good advice for any birding trip). Try and learn the subtle differences between Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwater, and between the Black-footed, Laysan, and Short-tailed Albatross.

Learn size and movement differential. We learned Murrelets are the tiny little things we would see sitting on the water, taking off as the ship passed. Storm-Petrels are very similar to Swallows over the water. Shearwaters were exactly that, they would fly with wings extended right over the surface of the water.

Most importantly, STAY ON THE BIRD! When you get a bird in your scope or binoculars, keep looking at it. Save the guide for when you’ve lost the bird. Check out the size, the shape, the behavior, and any markings you can distinguish. How long is the bill (if you can see it)? Can you see the legs? What color are they? Is the bird light or dark? How does it compare to other, similar birds? What are the proportions? What shape is the head? The tail? The wings? All this will help determine the family and, hopefully, the species.

Equipment (in case you’re a bit earlier in your birding career or feel you need to re-equip):

I traveled with my Pentax 8x32 binoculars. Avie had his Swarovski EL 8x32. The scope was a Swarovski HD 80mm scope with the zoom eyepiece.

Avie invested in a good Manfrotto 128RC fluid head for the trip and this was invaluable when we had a bird in the scope as a moving target, enabling us to stay with it for as long as it was within viewing range.

We retrofitted it to his old Tiltall Leitz tripod. A decent Manfrotto tripod showed up at Costco before the trip, but we stuck with what we knew (and had).

If you’re going on an Alaska cruise and have questions I haven’t answered, please email me here: april-g at satx dot rr dot com.

North to Alaska

Avi and I sat down to decide what we'd like to do for our birding trip this summer. We usually do a two-week stint somewhere wonderful and, usually, neotropical. So I decided to look into something completely different and began researching good options for a first time visit to our largest state, Alaska.

What I found out was a cruise would give us the greatest bang for the buck in terms of time and distance. So, I booked a 14-day cruise with Holland America.

We'll be sailing in and out of Seattle, giving us the added attraction of possibly seeing our son, who lives there, on either end of the trip.

The itinerary looks interesting, with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak, Sitka, and Victoria. We also cruise by or through Vancouver, Tracy Arm, and the Hubbard Glacier.

Many people are disappointed it's not a total "inside passage cruise". We couldn't be happier. Sailing on the Pacific side of Vancouver and across the Gulf of Alaska will, hopefully, give us good opportunities for pelagics. We'll also be taking several whale watch excursions (NOT through the cruise line, but on smaller boats) which will pass rookeries as well as whale feeding grounds.

Right now we're trying to decide whether our 60mm 25x Kowa will suffice, or if we should bite the bullet and purchase a 65mm 25-50x Swarovski. Anyone have strong opinions on this.

For now, here's a map of the 14 day itinerary:

14 Days Cruising Alaska

Israel: A Bit of Urban Birding at HaYarkon Park

Avie and I had been eyeing HaYarkon Park since our arrival to Tel Aviv. It has a river which cuts a swath across the north side of the city, ending with an estuary into the Mediterranean Sea.

We finally made it over to the park the morning of Friday, August 19 and, in spite of being disoriented geographically within the park, were not disappointed.

We went over to the east end of HaYarkon, hoping to be away from the boat/kayak rentals, amusement park, etc. It was busy with bicyclers and a few families, but not enough to be disruptive.



The river itself didn’t appear to have many birds in it.



We meant to go to an inland pond, but were never able to find it. However, we followed a few of the trails, both paved and dirt, to see what we could see.

Advice to future birders at HaYarkon: always take the high trails. The low ones, meant for bicycling, take you through thick vegetation with little viewing of the water. The paved trails, at least for us, yielded many more birds.

Our first sightings weren’t birds at all, but a couple of lizards. We hadn’t seen but one during our time outside Tel Aviv, so we were excited when two turned up in rapid succession.



With no new birds for the day, we were able to use our learning curve and were pleased we were able to identify every bird we saw without using our field guide.

The first was  Spur-winged Lapwing (both an adult and a juvenile). We photographed the adult, a handsomely marked bird.



Common Myna was, well, common throughout the park. These are not native, but introduced (along with Rose-ringed Parakeets). Apparently, the first tree nesting pair of these used date palms in HaYarkon Park. (Holzapfel, Levin, Hatzofe, & Kark)



We were delighted when, toward the end of our walk, we came across a large (maybe a dozen) flock of European Bee Eaters. Some were hawking insects, others were perched together in a tall tree. We couldn’t get a great photo, but managed to get one that shows identifying marks.



All in all, we spent about two hours walking and birding. At that point, the heat of the day got to be a bit much, so we gave up.

May I encourage others to visit this urban oasis. I’m sure we would have come across many more birds had we gone earlier or at a cooler time of the year.

THE LIST:

Cattle Egret
Glossy Ibis
Mallard
Spur-winged Lapwing
Rock Pigeon
Laughing Dove
Common Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
European Bee Eater
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Syrian Woodpecker
Barn Swallow
White-spectacled Bulbul
Graceful Prinia
Palestine Sunbird
Eurasian Jay
Eurasian Jackdaw
Hooded Crow
Common Myna
House Sparrow

Israel: Birding the Northern Negev Desert

Before coming to Israel I looked for someone (with a car) who could take us on a couple of birding days. There weren't any lay birders who were going to be in town. But my favorite travel website, Birdingpal, had a professional guide who was relatively inexpensive and extremely responsive via email: Carmel Zitronblat.

We made arrangements and went birding in the Northern Negev desert with him. Of course, because of the heat in August added to the two-hours it would take us to drive there, we woke at 3:00 a.m. and were picked up a half hour later.

By the time we got to the Desert the sun was beginning to rise.

We spent the first while scanning the rocks and shrubs trying to find a Macqueen's Bustard. Carmel had seen it a couple of days earlier when he was scouting the area for our trip. We had no such luck, dipping on this particular species.

Our first new species of the day was a Mourning Wheatear, a very pretty black and white bird which was fairly ubiquitous throughout the rocky terrain.

After spending a good amount of time scanning the area, we got back in the car and drove to some fish ponds. Life is dependent on the availability of water. In the desert, manmade water sources allow for incredible concentrations of life. Our main focus here was to see the four species of Sandgrouse that come throughout the morning, and we were not disappointed.

First, a view of the habitat, with some of the species visible in the photos:

This is a Little Egret among the reeds growing in this particular pond. There were also many Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers,

Spur-winged Lapwing:

White Stork, and Black-winged Stilt:

We saw all four species of Sandgrouse (see bird list). We even managed to get close enough to these Crowned Sandgrouse (using the car as a blind) to get a decent few photos. This is the best one:

Check out their gorgeous markings! Each species was equally striking. Carmel was also good at pointing out their size differences.

We were also lucky enough to see a herd of Desert Gazelle off in the distance. But they use the ponds as well, evidenced by Dan's excitement over Gazelle scat on the ground nearby.

Israel's ecotourism infrastructure is in its infancy, despite the incredible numbers of birds passing through here in both spring and fall, during Eurasian migration. But accommodations are springing up in a few kibbutzes, as well as these lovely little cottages we passed in the middle of nowhere.

I would love to see more birders from all over start coming here, wearing their birding shirts and binoculars, and spending money in the towns, cities, and kibbutzes. Showing people birding can provide an influx of money might move the ecotourism movement along. My son even came up with a good slogan for the campaign: "Israel: It's Safer Than Detroit!" (Sorry Detroit!)

Carmel took us to a lovely treed area for a field breakfast of fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, cold cuts, and pita bread (and regular sliced bread as well). He even brought a field stove, in case we wanted Turkish coffee.

While we ate we added Arabian Babbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, and European Bee Eater to our growing list of birds.

After breakfast, we drove to a park with a disappearing wetlands. Carmel told us about a birder who's trying to convince the government to try and reestablish it by bringing in water. One can only hope he has success.

Walking down to the wetlands, we saw a large herd of long-haired goats (Angora?). As we walked down, we saw they were tended by a Bedouin woman and her son, accompanied by a dog and this camel. 

Driving through the desert we saw many Bedouin towns, both small and large. These were not the tents set up for tourists who want to have some coffee and a camel ride. They were shanty towns which reminded me of Native American reservations in the U.S. southwest. The difference was these had camels. I was able to get a photo of one of the larger ones as we drove on the highway back to Tel Aviv.

All in all, it was an incredible birding morning. And now I'll leave you with another vista of the Northern Negev desert.

The bird list:

Sequim, WA and a Trip Around Protection Island

I'm going to make this a quick (and easy) photo blog of Dan's and my trip out to Sequim for a boat trip around Protection Island. The goal was to see Alcids (mostly Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted Puffins). But we were fortunate enough to have a wonderful Heerman's Gull mixed in with the Glaucos-winged flocks, giving us a total of two life birds for this trip -- the Puffin and the Gull, since we had already ticked the Auklets at Whidbey Island the previous day.

This first photo is the lineup for the ferry. Sequim was having its annual Lavender Festival.

The weather on the ferry ride out was beautiful, so we had high hopes for the day.

We took a short detour to a place called Troll Haven. The next few photos give an impression of this incredible place. It's not a tourist attraction -- but a private residence. So I think we only saw a small piece of its whimsy.

After spending some time at the Lavender Festival, we drove over to the Marina. The weather had turned sour. We wanted to stop and have some coffee at the restaurant there, but they were booked solid and didn't even offer us a cup to go. So, we waiting by the overhangs until our boat came in.

This was what the weather looked like from the window of the boat. But, when has that ever stopped birders?

Tufted Puffin!!!:

Hauled out Elephant Seal:

Hauled out harbor seals and a juvenile Bald Eagle:

My son Dan took a photo of me. You can see his reflection in the window:

A couple of great sunset shots:

These are mostly Pigeon Guillemots flying back to their nesting holes:

A Day on Whidbey Island, WA -- 7/14/2011

I always enjoy visiting my son in Seattle. There's good coffee, cooler weather, beautiful scenery, and Pacific Northwest birding.

When I was planning the trip, I built in a day for one of Washington State's famous pelagic tours. As it turns out, the week I had booked was the one week there was no trip. So, I settled for spending a day birding Whidbey Island and a second day up by Sequim (on the peninsula) followed by a birding cruise to Protection Island.

I used Hal Opperman's A Birder's Guide to Washington (ABA Birdfinding Guide) and was accompanied by my son, Dan, and his friend Sam.

Summer is not the optimal time for birding in Washington. But we still managed to pick up a few life birds from the 26 species we saw that day. If we had been able to positively identify our empidonax flycatcher as a Pacific Slope Flycatcher, we all would have been up one more.

Possible the best sighting of the day, though, had nothing to do with birds. It was a family of Sea Otters frolicking around the beach and in the water.

Of course, no trip to Whidbey Island (or Washington State) is complete until you see several Bald Eagles. Many of the ones we saw were first or second year youngsters. But, toward the end of our day, we came across this beautiful adult who sat and posed for us.

The list (life birds in bold):

Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Bald Eagle
California Quail
Black Oystercatcher
Herring gull
Caspian Tern
Pigeon Guillemot
Rhinoceros Auklet
Belted Kingfisher
Red-breasted Sapsucker
unknown Empidonax
American Crow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
Swainson's Thrush
Savannah Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Bullock's Oriole
House Finch
House Sparrow

About Cuba

For many reasons, we've opted not to publish an actual trip report of our birding survey in Cuba. However, if you're interested and would like to hear about it, please send me an email (available by clicking on my profile info).

But, just to be fair, I'll post a couple of bird photos from the trip, a Cuban Black Hawk and a digiscoped Stygian Owl.

We Have Travel Packets!

Yesterday (Thursday, Feb. 17), a week and a half before we’re scheduled to fly from Miami to Havana, we received emails from Marazul (the travel “agents”) asking us to confirm the use of our pre-authorized credit cards and our mailing address. A second email notified us our travel packets were going out that evening.
Well, it’s just before 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18 and they’ve arrived. My level of anxiety regarding the unknown travel factor has disappeared.

A photo of my portion of the packet is below. Avi received identical papers, except with his name on everything.



It contained:

1. Our tickets for our flight booked by Marazul, chartered by Gulfstream Air, and provided by Sky King. The guessing game we’ve been playing these past few days about the type of aircraft we’d be on has been resolved as well. We’ll be flying a Boeing 737 with an allowance of 44 lbs. each. I’m anticipating we’ll be at 44 lbs. combined, since we prefer to travel light. ($349 each R/T)

2. A travel contract between us and Gulfstream Air, which we have to sign and hand in at the Miami airport.

3. Our Cuban Tourist Card, which cost $50 each.

4. A paper giving us information regarding our Cuban health insurance, which we are required to purchase in order to visit Cuba. Apparently we have $25,000 worth of coverage each, with $7,000 more for transportation home in the event of injury or death. All this for $3/day.

5. Our license from the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, making this a legal trip for humanitarian purposes.

6. Information on Cuban money exchange. Between the exchange rate and the exchange “premium” (thanks to the U.S. embargo discouraging U.S. dollars from entering Cuba), there’s a 20% loss when exchanging dollars for CUC’s. We could exchange our dollars into Euros here and then into CUC’s. But it all seems too complicated, and I’m not sure there would be that much in savings. We’ll see what we decide when we read this a bit more carefully.

7. A 17 page booklet from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control titled Cuba: What You Need to Know About U.S. Sanctions Against Cuba. A pretty dry read. Most of the material doesn’t apply to us. It just speaks about who may or may not travel to Cuba and what we may and may not purchase there. At least it looks as though Avi can bring back some music.

This weekend we’ll be getting things out and in order for packing. It seems particularly important we not forget anything we need, since we’re not allowed to buy much in Cuba.

Next Stop: Cuba!

Many, many months ago, just after our return from our birding trip to Ecuador (Galapagos), Andy Griswold from the Ct. Audubon Society's Ecotravel decided to try and tempt us into booking another trip. First he sent us information on their trip to Trinidad and Tobago -- it look interesting, but we decided it was a bit too rich for our blood. But Andy is a smart man. The next offer hooked us and reeled us in. It was a two-week birding survey of Cuba in conjunction with the Caribbean Conservation Trust.

Perhaps a little bit of backstory would be in order here. I used to have family in Cuba. My grandmother had two aunts who lived there and ran a, um, er, "business" in Cienfuegos or Matanzas. (Both areas came up when she would tell the story.) My grandmother visited her aunts there before Batista was deposed and frequently told us it was the most beautiful place she had ever been. I have several photos from her time there, but will post just one, since I think it's the most historically significant (check out the poster to my grandmother's right).

Basically, the poster says:

Workers
We march on May 1st
United front to the divisionists (?) and against anti-union attacks!















We signed up. The process hasn't been an easy one.

We're flying in and out of Miami through a Cuban charter company called Marazul. We ARE traveling legally, with a license from the U.S. Treasury Dept. since this is considered a scientific trip which falls under humanitarian travel. As of now, I'm still not sure everything is in order, since we have yet to receive our travel packet: airline tickets, Treasury license, proof of Cuban health insurance (required of all foreign visitors at a cost of $3/day per person), and who knows what else. With only two weeks before our trip, I must say I'm a bit nervous.

I guess our target bird should be Cuba's most famous, the Bee Hummingbird -- about the size of a quarter. But I'd really like to see the Cuban Tody, a very cute, brightly colored piece of feathery fluff (and probably one we're much more likely to see).

Our trip to and from Florida will also include a visit with our daughter, who is living in Hollywood and will be our means of transportation to the Miami airport on March 1. We'll probably get in a bit of birding there as well, though not as concentrated an effort as the two weeks which will follow.

So, stay tuned. I'm pretty sure there won't be much Internet access during our time on the island. But I'll be keeping my journal and logging the photos each day so I can post gradually once we arrive back in the U.S. For now, I'll leave you with one more photo with my grandmother and her cousin (the daughter of one of the Cuban aunts who was raised as her sister in the U.S.) with some Cuban friends.