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Some casual birder highlights, which become highlights from our own cruise experiences too: Bald eagles were as common as crows on our recent Alaska cruise - was not prepared to see so many of these majestic birds just about everywhere during our May/June time in Alaska. Up close

 

Eh, puffins not so much - illusive little critters world wide as we have tried to track them down from Norway to Iceland and Labrador. Alaska felt as prolific as Costa Rica for even casual birders such as ourselves.

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Hi Tuolumne, I am on that cruise. Will be on for the 7 day Western before. I am a bird feeder. Love to watch them in the yard around my many feeders. I don't call myself a birder because I still can't ID a lot of the birds I see. Looking forward to 21 days on the Rotty again. Hope to see you there. The roll call for this cruise is very slow.

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Some casual birder highlights, which become highlights from our own cruise experiences too: Bald eagles were as common as crows on our recent Alaska cruise - was not prepared to see so many of these majestic birds just about everywhere during our May/June time in Alaska. Up close

 

Eh, puffins not so much - illusive little critters world wide as we have tried to track them down from Norway to Iceland and Labrador. Alaska felt as prolific as Costa Rica for even casual birders such as ourselves.

hey ol' salt. i agree with your Alaska sentiment. loved to hear the Eagles calling too. keep up the bird watching!!

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Hi Tuolumne, I am on that cruise. Will be on for the 7 day Western before. I am a bird feeder. Love to watch them in the yard around my many feeders. I don't call myself a birder because I still can't ID a lot of the birds I see. Looking forward to 21 days on the Rotty again. Hope to see you there. The roll call for this cruise is very slow.

 

Hi 49er! Yea! A fellow ship mate!Thanks for the response. Cant wait to meet you on board. You will be able to find us on the ship, as we will be the two with binoculars walking on the promenade .We are Paul and Ramona and cant wait to meet you!! Yes, we love watching birds too. Hang with us one day and we will help you ID a few for fun. We also are looking forward to the Rotterdam. Love that ship. Thanks again for chiming in...

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I'm not a birder but I do love to see birds and photograph them if I'm lucky enough to be able to do so, and I just wanted to say that birders are some of the nicest folks I've met, so thank you guys.

 

My wife and I were fortunate to be able to take an expedition trip to Antarctica a few years ago, and I spent most of our day crossing the Drake Passage out in the stern, where the only other folks out there were several die-hard birders. (The really rough seas kept pretty much everyone else in their cabins.) Albatross, petrels, and other birds follow ships through the Drake, so it was pretty awesome, and the birders were incredibly generous in sharing their knowledge and identifying what we were seeing, then and during the entire trip. I felt very lucky to be able to get this shot:

 

enhance

 

(Wandering albatross, by turtles06)

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hey ol' salt. i agree with your Alaska sentiment. loved to hear the Eagles calling too. keep up the bird watching!!

 

We did see a skeleton of a dodo in Mauritius - that has to count for something. At least they said it was a dodo. And it was a natural history museum. But they also told us the Coco de Mer trees were known to engage what one might call a "dating game" when the full moon was out in the Seychelles, on that same cruise too.

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I'm not a birder but I do love to see birds and photograph them if I'm lucky enough to be able to do so, and I just wanted to say that birders are some of the nicest folks I've met, so thank you guys.

 

My wife and I were fortunate to be able to take an expedition trip to Antarctica a few years ago, and I spent most of our day crossing the Drake Passage out in the stern, where the only other folks out there were several die-hard birders. (The really rough seas kept pretty much everyone else in their cabins.) Albatross, petrels, and other birds follow ships through the Drake, so it was pretty awesome, and the birders were incredibly generous in sharing their knowledge and identifying what we were seeing, then and during the entire trip. I felt very lucky to be able to get this shot:

 

enhance

 

(Wandering albatross, by turtles06)

 

Hi Turtles, Evidence to the contrary, it looks as though you are a birder now! Great shot of an albaross! I cannot imagine going on such a fabulous trip as the one you have described, but hopefully one day. Thanks for sharing your experience and your wonderful photo. Birders are a mellow bunch... and when the conversation falls short, you always have something to talk about in common. Take care and thanks again...

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We did see a skeleton of a dodo in Mauritius - that has to count for something. At least they said it was a dodo. And it was a natural history museum. But they also told us the Coco de Mer trees were known to engage what one might call a "dating game" when the full moon was out in the Seychelles, on that same cruise too.

 

HI OlsSalt. Of course that counts for something. Every experience does. Take care...

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Hi Turtles, Evidence to the contrary, it looks as though you are a birder now! Great shot of an albaross! I cannot imagine going on such a fabulous trip as the one you have described, but hopefully one day. Thanks for sharing your experience and your wonderful photo. Birders are a mellow bunch... and when the conversation falls short, you always have something to talk about in common. Take care and thanks again...

 

Thank you. I will leave you with one more birder story from the same trip. One day, I was alone on deck and spotted a white bird and took the photograph below. I had no idea what this bird was. Later, at lunch, I showed the image to one of my new birder friends, who was incredibly excited and said, "It's a white morph of a giant petrel!!" She insisted I show it to others. I have to say, this was great fun. If I were keeping a life list, it wouldn't be very long, but there sure would be some interesting birds on it!

 

enhance

 

(photo by turtles06)

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Hi Turtles, Evidence to the contrary, it looks as though you are a birder now! Great shot of an albaross! I cannot imagine going on such a fabulous trip as the one you have described, but hopefully one day. Thanks for sharing your experience and your wonderful photo. Birders are a mellow bunch... and when the conversation falls short, you always have something to talk about in common. Take care and thanks again...

Great picture. Looks like the albatross has a large wing span.

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Great picture. Looks like the albatross has a large wing span.

 

Thank you! Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the wandering albatross has "the longest wingspan of any living bird," typically ranging from 8.25 feet to 11.5 feet!

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Thank you! Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the wandering albatross has "the longest wingspan of any living bird," typically ranging from 8.25 feet to 11.5 feet!

That is HUGE. thanks for the info.

 

Some bird cams.

https://explore.org/livecams/birds/decorah-eagles

https://explore.org/livecams/puffins/puffin-burrow-cam

https://explore.org/livecams/ospreys/osprey-nest

There are cams there of many different animals.

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Thank you. I will leave you with one more birder story from the same trip. One day, I was alone on deck and spotted a white bird and took the photograph below. I had no idea what this bird was. Later, at lunch, I showed the image to one of my new birder friends, who was incredibly excited and said, "It's a white morph of a giant petrel!!" She insisted I show it to others. I have to say, this was great fun. If I were keeping a life list, it wouldn't be very long, but there sure would be some interesting birds on it!

 

enhance

 

(photo by turtles06)

wonderful photo. how lucky! thanks for sharing

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Thank you! Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the wandering albatross has "the longest wingspan of any living bird," typically ranging from 8.25 feet to 11.5 feet!

 

they are a sight to see at sea, that is for sure. no mistaking them... thanks again for all the pics. wonderful

Edited by tuolumne couple
typo
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On my 2010 Volendam cruise to Australia/New Zealand, I was surprised to see a birders' meeting in the When & Where. Turned out there was an experienced birding leader on board as a passenger, he organized two meetings. About a dozen people showed up at the first meeting, and he/we talked about birds likely to be seen on that trip. And then we had a second meeting near the end of the cruise, where everyone shared stories and pictures. The leader and other more experienced birders were able to identify a bird, that I saw but was not able to get a picture of, simply by my description of its behavior. It was a Pied Fantail. That was one of the highlights of my trip.

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On my 2010 Volendam cruise to Australia/New Zealand, I was surprised to see a birders' meeting in the When & Where. Turned out there was an experienced birding leader on board as a passenger, he organized two meetings. About a dozen people showed up at the first meeting, and he/we talked about birds likely to be seen on that trip. And then we had a second meeting near the end of the cruise, where everyone shared stories and pictures. The leader and other more experienced birders were able to identify a bird, that I saw but was not able to get a picture of, simply by my description of its behavior. It was a Pied Fantail. That was one of the highlights of my trip.

 

That is an awesome story. What a great way to remember that cruise! I would have loved to have been on that cruise with you and those birders. I really want to cruise to Australia. Not only for the birding, but also to snorkel the great barrier reef, and my grandmother was born in Australia, AND I want to cruise to New Zealand, not only because I love New Zealand wines ( I am into the whites right now, haven't tried the reds) but to see the Fantail now, too!!. I had to look up the Pied Fantail. what beauty!! That is one my favorite part of birding, the investigative part of meeting someone and they say 'i saw a bird.. ' and then asking all the details to see if i can identify it by description. I copied an image of the Fantail from google images for anyone else wondering...I wish i could cruise with a bunch of expert birders. thanks so much for chiming in and sharing your story!

P.F..PNG.4e4a2e8c79101bf5efb45ac019577155.PNG

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From last May's Alaskan cruise, these are from Glacier Bay (ZAANDAM)

 

 

IMG_1189_zpsdqleih60.jpg

 

 

Flock of gulls tracking the ZAANDAM, view from the balcony

IMG_1193_zps0evbd7df.jpgPuffins in Kenai Fjord off Seward

 

IMG_1311_zps6ysmbvjy.jpg

nice pics jealous about the Puffins.. one of my favorites. also love the MS Vaandam!

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