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Cruise ship birding



I replied privately to Wendy on her RFI, but thought my "cruise ship
pelagics" might be of general interest.  Tracy and I have enjoyed the
opportunity to take 4 cruises since Sept. 2000, two to the W. Caribbean and
two to the Bahamas.  All told I spent about 10-12 hours posted at the rail
with bins in hand watching and hoping for some birds to wing by.  The
results were few, but kind of interesting.  In general the waters of the
Caribbean and adjacent north Atlantic are pretty sparse for pelagics.  The
waters of the Gulf Stream would probably provide some nice birds, but the
cruise ships typically don't stay in the stream for long and most transits
are made at night.  Typically the ships arrive in port at or before dawn
and leave around dusk, leaving the "sea days" as the only opportunities for
deep water birding.

Our trips produced the following birds found in deep water or away from
land:

1 White-winged Dove  150 miles off the coast of Honduras
3 swallow sp.  150 miles off Honduras
1 Wood Thrush  25 miles north of Cuba
15 Cattle Egrets  25 miles north of Cuba
10-15 Common Nighthawks in small groups 25-50 miles north of Cuba
1 American Redstart 50 miles off Cozumel (in the ships dining room!)
2 Royal Terns 25 miles south of Grand Bahama Island (stayed with the ship
for 6 hours)

As you can see most of the birds were migrants, and all of our trips were
during fall migrations.  While the numbers of birds seen at sea were few,
the ports provided great birding, especially on Cozumel, in Grand Cayman,
and in the Nassau area.  If anyone would like specific info on any of these
ports, please give me a call.  I would be glad to share our "hotspots".

Best,
Steve Shultz
Cary, NC
919.779.2826
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