Alaska Cruise May 2011 (1 Viewer)

I just booked a family vacation cruise on the Disney Cruise line. This is a 7 day cruise with stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchican. Also passage through Tracy Arm. The cruise is in mid-May leaving from Vancouver.

This is a family trip more then a birding trip (hence Disney), but as usual I'm hoping to get in a little birding along the way.

Most of our land excursions will be geared to sightseeing and some (hopefully) wildlife viewing.

Just curious as to what birds I can expect/hope to see while at sea and in port at that time of the year.

Thanks.

One reasonably easy way to find the answer to your questions would be:

1. Go to ebird.com
2. From the "view and explore data" tab, select Bar Charts
3. Lookup the counties for each of the towns you mentioned in your message - Wikipedia is one of many ways to find this out.
4. Back to ebird, Select Alaska, select counties, and enter the counties.

This will produce a bar-chart showing all the species that are typically seen in these counties, on a month-by-month basis.

Give it a try.

Veagle

PONYRCR said:

I just booked a family vacation cruise on the Disney Cruise line. This is a 7 day cruise with stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchican. Also passage through Tracy Arm. The cruise is in mid-May leaving from Vancouver.

This is a family trip more then a birding trip (hence Disney), but as usual I'm hoping to get in a little birding along the way.

Most of our land excursions will be geared to sightseeing and some (hopefully) wildlife viewing.

Just curious as to what birds I can expect/hope to see while at sea and in port at that time of the year.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I went in Aug so expect significant differences. Land birds were surprisingly similar to So Cal when I went with a couple exceptions: Bald Eagles (more than you can imagine) and Murrelets that may be near shore. I did a birding excursion which was nice to have a guide through the rainforest but as is typical with cruises, getting out and doing your own thing is cheaper and can be more rewarding.

By far you will have way more action at sea (which includes the passage). Storm Petrels and Northern Fulmars, occasional Albatross - expect many tubenoses. Additionally, there were ALWAYS whales and dolphins around. Keep your eyes open on the wake of the ship for surfing dolphins

It will be amazing. BTW, some people might say that May is a bit early for a cruise. Our cruise had frequent rains and it was cold, iow, a little colder wouldn't have mattered much. But with some good Goretex or similar protection, it will be extremely rewarding. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to go then.

veagle said:

One reasonably easy way to find the answer to your questions would be:

1. Go to ebird.com
2. From the "view and explore data" tab, select Bar Charts
3. Lookup the counties for each of the towns you mentioned in your message - Wikipedia is one of many ways to find this out.
4. Back to ebird, Select Alaska, select counties, and enter the counties.

This will produce a bar-chart showing all the species that are typically seen in these counties, on a month-by-month basis.

Give it a try.

Veagle

Click to expand...

Thanks Veagle.

I usually find ebird a bit overwhelming, but your step by step directions helped a lot.

I got the info I was looking for.