Best locations world wide (1 Viewer)

[amears]

Whilst I'm not a disastrous sailor, I'm not a great one either. Can anyone point to excellent sea watching locations world wide that I could target for seeing a good range of genuine seabirds, that's albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels, etc. I know UK sites very well already and also Madeira.

Pelagic trips that have a reputation for seeing benign conditions, or that are fairly short duration would also be great to know. Again, not UK - I've done a Scillonian pelagic and several evening trips out of Scilly, and not been ill on any of these, luckily.

Any huge ferries that are stable even in bad conditions but reliably see superb sea birding (but not Bay of Biscay, as I'm well aware of those).

Breeding colonies are probably easy to ID on the web I would imagine but any that offer an outstanding range of species would be good to hear about. They need to be accessible without a really nasty boat trip though!

Thanks,
Andy

 

[DMW]

You could do worse than some of the inter-island ferries in Japan. I don't think the legendary Kushiro to Tokyo ferry runs anymore, but I believe there is still e.g. a shorter ferry between Hokkaido and Tokyo.

 

[birdboybowley]

Can't beat NZ......Kaikoura especially (going out on the boat is an unforgettable experience to be within literal touching distance of big Diomedeas) and other sites around the South Island are amazing

 

[StevePreddy]

Andy, I'd second Adam's Kaikoura vote. In fact, I almost got there first last night but my iPad crashed before I had chance to hit "Post". I was in NZ over New Year and as well as three Kaikoura trips (two for seabirds, one for whales), I did a Hauraki Gulf pelagic, the fast catamaran trip to Stewart Island and back, a cruise around Queen Charlotte Sound, and the big ferry between South and North Islands. I picked up 21 species of Procellariformes, more than doubling my world tubenose list. This included Common Diving-petrel (family tick), 5 albatross taxa, 3 of the world's 5 species of Procellaria, both giant petrels, Cape Petrel, New Zealand Storm Petrel within touching distance, and hundreds of Cook's Petrels, Buller's Shearwaters, Fairy Prions and White-faced Stormies. Had I done a Stewart Island pelagic as well, that would no doubt have added further species, being further south, but I wimped out as the waters are choppier down there. Other highlights included 5 Sperm Whale sightings, lots of Dusky Dolphins, a family of Hector's Dolphins, and 20 or so Grey Ternlets (which used to require a trip to Polynesia, but are now regular on the Mokohinau rock stacks at the north end of the Hauraki gulf). Oh, and a Hutton's Shearwater (breeding endemic to the Kaikoura mountains) in a box - it had been found in someone's bathroom and we released it in the bay.

I'm not good with boats either, but the Kaikoura trips stay within a mile or two of land due to the deep-water canyon which comes close inshore, and the Hauraki Gulf trip was flat calm on the way out, though a little rougher on the return (but still sheltered compared to the open ocean). My seasickness drug of choice is prochlorperazine (available only on prescription) which I find works really well. I had used over the counter Stugeron on a Biscay trip two years ago, but had a weird side-effect whereby muscle spasms in my wrists caused my hands to form into a claw shape (I only found out that this was a known problem when I got home).

Aussies on the NZ trips said that they saw more birds on these trips than they would in a year off Sydney!

 

[Jim M.]

Other good locations for pelagic trips include:

Northern California, especially Monterey Bay and Half Moon Bay.

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Lima, Peru

Chile

Cape Town, South Africa

 

[pravat11]

Bird Watching Location in India

Some Places in India Famous for Bird Watching Location-

1. Micholi Uttarakhand
   
2. Bharatpur Rajasthan
   
3. Lava West Bengal
   
4. Jim Corbett Nation Park Uttarakhand
   
5. Pangot and Sattal, Uttarakhand

 

[DMW]

Hi Pravat

These are indeed great birding locations, but the question was about good places to watch seabirds. The sites you list are all (very much!) inland, so not especially good for seabirds!

I've never really heard about sea watching locations in India, but presumably there must be some potential along the west coast or southern tip during the right time of year?

Cheers
Duncan

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Ras ranjari, East of mirbat, in Oman is a superb seawatching location during the monsoon (end of July/August ).
The number and diversity of birds passing is amazing.

Owen

 

[lewis20126]

A few land based spots:

Hawaii:
There is a spot on the east coast of Kauai where in the right conditions (onshore wind, rain) you can pick up both Hawaiian Petrel and Newell's Shearwater - we saw a couple of Mottled Petrels here as well which is the only time I've ever seen them from land. The Petrel can be seen at colonies with luck, but we didn't try

Corsica
Southern tip, south of Bonifacio is very good for Yelkouan's and Scopoli's Shearwaters, especially early evening

Galapagos
Seas normally calm and inter-island cruises great for Galapagos Petrel (eg west of Isabella), Galapagos Shearwater and others. In both cases the birds would be visible from adjacent land as they return to colonies in the evening.

cheers, alan

 

[trw]

Not sure if they do pelagic but La Coruna Northern Spain was brilliant when we sailed out on a cruise ship.

 

[Jim M.]

Other good locations for pelagic trips include:

Northern California, especially Monterey Bay and Half Moon Bay.

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Lima, Peru

Chile

Cape Town, South Africa

Re-reading the original post, I see it is asking for pelagic trips where conditions tend to be relatively calm. I think the first two I mentioned fall into that category, the last does not, and I'm not sure about the South American ones.

 

[walshey]

I've not been but Cap Rhir in Morrocco seems to be getting a reputation for some tricky seabirds lately. See Jos Stratford's recent report in the Vacations section.

The lighthouse NW of Tarrafal on Sao Nicolao, Cape Verde was good. Fea's, Little Shearwater of both types, Cape Verde Shears plus Tropicbirds and Boobies.

 

[amears]

Thanks to all for some excellent ideas, and especially to those who added detail (and the sea sickness drug, Steve P). I had a feeling NZ and California might feature...

Lots for me to think about and research there, great stuff everyone.

Andy.

 

[Mila]

My spouse and me went to Antarctic two times. The first time we went to the Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland, the second time to Ross Sea, stopping at the way on a few Australian and New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands. On both trips crossing roaring forties, the furious fifties and the screaming sixties was rough, and I mean rough, but then, when you're in the seventies, you'd see tens of thousands sea birds, and lots of other wildlife as well as an amazing scenery. Actually you'd see birds as soon as you start the journey, but you might not be up to go to the deck because of huge waves, which of course are also something to behold.