Passerines in the middle of the ocean

[andy22]

The one thing i love most about birdwatching is migration.. I have had many experiences with it too! One memory (august, 2006) on the bay of biscay cruise. In total 31, of 7 species of passerines were seen and they were; sedge,reed,willow and melodious warblers, tree pipit, wheatear and a spotted flycatcher. Alot of these species came down one morning when it was quite wet and over cast, alowing good views of alot of species, including a willow warbler which came onto the boat landed on someones finger had a preen and a rest for about 4 minues and then flew off high again to carry on its migration!!! But what i though was the strangest, well i new that they oviously flew in this direction but never thought id seen species of passerine in the middle of the ocean! On the last morning just as we could see the coast of cornwall a reed warbler had decided afterall that it wouldnt migrate that day so instead of turning around it thought it would hitch a ride on the boat, little did i no that he was going to land next to me whilst i was having my breakfest, it was literly a couple of cms away from my plate!!! I would highly reconment a pelagic to anyone, especially if you love migration like me. (my avatar is of a juv sedge warbler on the boat, which sadley didnt make it)

Andy

[AndyB]

Hi andy22, I agree that experiencing migrants at sea is pretty exciting. Off the Pacific coast, migrants are so common on pelagics that a small shrub is usually brought on board and you often get your best views of some of the western warblers and sparrows 100 miles offshore. In Nov 07, I did a weekend cruise to Baja from LA and I got up early and walked the decks in the morning. Lots of landbirds had arrived overnight and many stayed during the day and more joined. There seemed to be a steady flow with the most interesting being Burrowing Owl, Short-eared Owl and a small group of Horned Larks that followed (but never landed) for several hours. Here's my photo album from that trip (http://surfbirds.com/albums/showgallery.php?cat=367) with a few of the birds seen.

[Colin Key]

My last time in the Bay of Biscay was 1999 aboard P&O's "Pride of Bilboa", a 26 hour sailing between Bilbao and Portsmouth. I took my bins along (mainly to watch cetaceans) but we had a force 9 gale and never saw a single bird. The weather was so bad you couldn't see either the sky or the sea.

The only "exotic" thing was Freddie and The Dreamers who were the main cabaret act!

I miss out on a lot of pelagic species off the south coast of Portugal because I am not a good sailor (I will only go on boats that you can drive onto) and the thought of being sat between a barrel of "chum" and someone constantly throwing up is making me feel quite queazy right now.

Colin (land-lubber).