Pelagics on cruise ships (1 Viewer)

[DMW]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm wondering if anybody has ever done any pelagic birding from regular cruise ships?

The reason I ask is that there seem to be some pretty good offers on discounted cruise websites, such as Vacationstogo - e.g. 21 days Rio de Janeiro to Santiago via the Antarctic Peninsula for £1250, various long Pacific voyages etc.

Obviously you won't get the same quality of experience as with expedition cruises, landings at colonies etc, but the cost of these is becoming prohibitive, and some of the tourist cruises advertised seem pretty interesting.

Are there any obvious reasons why these sorts of cruises would be a waste of time / frustrating for birding?

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I spent a lot of time birding from Malaga to the Canaries and back on a Royal Caribbean boat. It wasn't bad, but we saw more on the return nearer the Moroccan coast than we had further offshore on the way out.

Stephen

 

[MSA]

I'll watch this thread with interest, having recently booked on a cruise from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Antarctica, Falkland Islands, Puerto Madryn, Montevideo and back to Buenos Aires in Feb 2014 (too long to wait, but all the "cheap" cabins for 2013 were fully booked!!). I reckon the fact that it's half the price (or less) of an expedition-type trip simply means I can do something I never expected to be able to afford; yes there's bound to be some degree of compromise, but I hope to be happy with what I see, not disappointed by what I could have theoretically seen on a trip I'd never have been able to do!

 

[Richard Klim]

21 days Rio de Janeiro to Santiago via the Antarctic Peninsula for £1250

Wow, that sounds a real bargain! Probably not the ideal pelagic, but I'm sure you'd see plenty of good stuff.

 

[DMW]

I spent a lot of time birding from Malaga to the Canaries and back on a Royal Caribbean boat. It wasn't bad, but we saw more on the return nearer the Moroccan coast than we had further offshore on the way out.

Stephen

Stephen, this was presumably a large ship. Were you able to get low enough to the water to not feel like you were birding from the top of a high-rise? Presumably cruise ships are stable enough to use a scope on a tripod?

 

[DMW]

Wow, that sounds a real bargain! Probably not the ideal pelagic, but I'm sure you'd see plenty of good stuff.

Yes, I don't suppose they will be chumming! However, the opportunity to do both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the southern cone ought to give a long species list. I imagine you would also see pretty well all the regular Antarctic seabirds.

Another interesting itinerary that caught my eye was 16 days Sydney to Papeete via New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa for £750.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Stephen, this was presumably a large ship. Were you able to get low enough to the water to not feel like you were birding from the top of a high-rise? Presumably cruise ships are stable enough to use a scope on a tripod?

There was a deck below the bridge you could access in calm weather and the views from there weren't bad at all, you could see flying fish well enough for example. As for stability, yes at times but when we left Lanzarote the sea was so rough that my notebook was blown off into the sea and I nearly fell over! They closed the outdoor decks to passengers soon after this!

Stephen

 

[Tiraya]

I did some mini-pelagic bird watching off the Channel ferry! Does that count?

Only saw some gannets, scoters and a possible shearwater but its a start!

 

[PhilW]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm wondering if anybody has ever done any pelagic birding from regular cruise ships?

The reason I ask is that there seem to be some pretty good offers on discounted cruise websites, such as Vacationstogo - e.g. 21 days Rio de Janeiro to Santiago via the Antarctic Peninsula for £1250, various long Pacific voyages etc.

Obviously you won't get the same quality of experience as with expedition cruises, landings at colonies etc, but the cost of these is becoming prohibitive, and some of the tourist cruises advertised seem pretty interesting.

Are there any obvious reasons why these sorts of cruises would be a waste of time / frustrating for birding?

See this link:

http://southernseasseawatchers.blogspot.co.uk/

I did this a few years ago for my mate Allan who did a cruise ship down to the Antarctic! Unfortunatley I couldn't go.......:-C

 

[Nohatch]

Oh you should see plenty of stuff, especially in the Southern Ocean! I love doing pelagics on regular ferries and have had fantastics views in the Mediterranean (hundreds of Yelkouan plus a few Cory's between Sardinia and Corsica), the Irish Sea, and the Heimaey ferry (Manx Shearwater, gannets, auks, gazillions of puffins, etc.). They seem like a very cost-effective way to see pelagics when you're travelling from A to B anyway.
So I've done a trip up from the Antarctic peninsula to the Falklands via South Georgia a few years back. This was a cargo/re-supply trip, so very few stops on the way, just steaming on a fairly large ship. Still, the birding was excellent. You're the only thing out there, so most birds will come to check out the ship for a bit and get a break from the wind. You are going to need warm clothes and a very good scope: some of the species out there are a nightmare to ID (prions, diving-petrels). I found Shirihai's Antarctic wildlife book excellent (if a bit bulky) - it also describes all the whales, and you should see plenty of those. Birds of Chile is also quite good, and both cover the Falklands.
If you can afford it: go for it!! Final thought: Southern Ocean cruise ships normally aren't that big, and if you get friendly with the crew they may get you access to the lower decks

N

 

[Allen S. Moore]

Another interesting itinerary that caught my eye was 16 days Sydney to Papeete via New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa for £750.

Which company is that with? It sounds good!

 

[DMW]

Which company is that with? It sounds good!

That particular one is with Princess. The website I'm quoting from is www.vacationstogo.com, which seems to be a bucket-shop for various cruise operators. The site makes interesting reading, and I imagine there are other similar discounters.

If anybody fancies doing this, it might be fun to get a small group together.

 

[BrightonBirder]

Your main loss will be the lack of landings and the speed of the large ship. All the ships that offer traditional Antarctic cruise/land trips boot it across the Drake Passage to maximize time in Antarctica and minimize the chance of encountering a storm. It is pretty rare to stop and whale watch and I have not heard of anybody chumming.

You are very likely to get most of the birds other than the diving-petrels and fairy petrel. These are hard enough to find, let alone ID.

Shirihai's book is excellent though I believe it gives an unrealistic representation of abundance and distribution of many species. Species such as beaked whales, Kerguelen petrel and a few others are really quite rare in the southern oceans. Species such as spectacled porpise, Ross Seal and Arnoux's Beaked Whale are among the least known and most difficult mammals in the world to see.

 

[Nohatch]

Shirihai's book is excellent though I believe it gives an unrealistic representation of abundance and distribution of many species. Species such as beaked whales, Kerguelen petrel and a few others are really quite rare in the southern oceans.

On my trip (2nd half of March 2011) Kerguelen Petrel was actually one of the 'regulars', and seen as far south as the Bransfield Strait (i.e. further south than indicated by Shirihai). I think it depends a lot on the time of year, weather conditions, etc. There's still a lot about SO pelagics we don't know.

N

 

[Alan henry]

I'll watch this thread with interest, having recently booked on a cruise from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Antarctica, Falkland Islands, Puerto Madryn, Montevideo and back to Buenos Aires in Feb 2014 (too long to wait, but all the "cheap" cabins for 2013 were fully booked!!). I reckon the fact that it's half the price (or less) of an expedition-type trip simply means I can do something I never expected to be able to afford; yes there's bound to be some degree of compromise, but I hope to be happy with what I see, not disappointed by what I could have theoretically seen on a trip I'd never have been able to do!

PM me nearer the time..

Cheers

Alan
www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/falklandbirder

 

[MSA]

PM me nearer the time..

Cheers

Alan
www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/falklandbirder

Cheers Alan, will do! B

 

[davercox]

Good days long gone

Bit of a sidetrack, but I couldn't help a spot of reminiscence ...
We baby-boomers (actually I'm a little older than them but never mind) really had it good, didn't we ? everyone knows that.
Especially, you could travel the world by sea - and it was cheaper than flying.
There were 3-4 passenger lines running round the world, and some oddballs (including the Russians) going round the Pacific.
I came home from NZ in 1969, and that was a good trip (on the same ship as below).
But particularly I remember going from Durban to Fremantle in winter (Aug) 1967 on the SS Northern Star. I've lost all my notebooks from those days, but I do know I saw 7-8 petrel/shearwater species despite the distractions of girls, free food, cheap booze, girls ... And the albatrosses (Wandering, Light-Mantled, Black-browed) were utterly, gloriously, unforgettable.
A great loss.

 

[Mysticete]

not a cruise ship, but the ferries between islands are pretty popular proxy for "pelagics" in Japan. On my visit I did two, and while the birding wasn't GREAT (bad time of year), I did get some good birds such as Tristram's Storm Petrel, Streaked Shearwater, Brown and Red-footed Booby, Stejneger's Petrel, and maybe a few others. Biggest issue is that the birds are often distant and usually you are on your own for ID, plus it's pretty ease to miss stuff given the area you have to visually cover by yourself

 

[trw]

We've done 8 cruises so far and managed to combine some excellent sea watching with equally good birdwatching at the different ports of call.
The best for sea watching was Harwich,Faroes, Iceland, Greenland.
Great sea watching every day without exception.
UK,Norway to Spitzbergen was brilliant too.
Most cruises spend 2 days in Spitzbergen .You can go ashore or bird watch from the deck as you are ussually anchored in a calm bay.Brilliant birdwatching in Spitzbergen especially.
I enjoyed the UK,Madeira,Canaries,Portugal run in August.
The seawatching was great most days around this time of year.No end of Shearwaters,Bulwers Petrel,Storm Petrel,Gannet, most days.
The best areas were around Madeira and the return leg from Portimao to Lisbon and up the west coast of Portugal.[Portimao is a great birdwatching port].
The Carribean is poor for seawatching until you get close to the islands where there are no end of birds.The landbased birdwatching is excellent if you do a little prior research.Antigua,Dominican Republic,St Maarten and Dominica were wonderful for landbased birdwatching.
We did a Cyprus,Israel,Eygpt Turkey cruise which was not brilliant for sea watching but made up for it on land if you go in migration season[Israel and Cyprus in particular].
The southern Med area around Tunisia is excellent for sea watching and any cruise travelling through the straits of Gibraltar then keeping close to the Spanish coast.

Top Tip- Choose a smaller ship around 30 to 40000 tons.
They usually have a low based promenade deck.You can settle yourself down for the day and be at flight level with a lot of the birds or see them more closely on the water.
We've never been on one of these mega cruise ships which look too high up for good seawatching.

 

[BrightonBirder]

Alan see you on Nov. 11 if you are working.