any Birders out there???

[mlgb]

Re Alaska. If you are including Anchorage, be sure to allow time for a Resurrection Bay or Kenai Fjords pre-cruise cruise in June....both kind of Puffins! Also huge flocks of Common Murre and a few Pigeon Guillemots. I took the early morning trainf from Anchorage and the midday 5-hour cruise with Major Marine (Capt. Gary).

 

 

 

In Glacier Bay, go out on the bow. Hopefully you will have the ebirder NPS naturalist (Nat) who can point out Kittletz's Murrelets! The bow and the 3rd deck Promenade are better than the back deck of 9 (I was on Noordam).

[tuolumne couple]

I'm a cruising birder but won't be on your ship. If you have the room I'd bring the scope. Unlike our California pelagic trips, you won't have the problem with rough seas! I was in Alaska recently and they had a "naturalist" on board with a scope, but his hours were strange and sporadic. So I sort of wish I had lugged the scope as I was having "black dot frustration" even with binoculars.

 

You might try Birding Pal for some meetups in your ports.. I did a Cape Horn cruise and thanks to cruise critic hooked up with another birder., who had already arranged some guides and one Birding Pal in Uruguay. And we were very lucky to have a lecturer who was very interested in pelagics and helped us with our IDs on the albatrosses and other tubenoses. We even found a storm petrel on board one early morning. We tossed it over, hopefully it survived!

 

So keep posting...you might get lucky.

 

Birding Pal, thanks -gonna look this us now. a lot of good tips here, so thanks! we also had a storm petrel on board. we tucked it under a bench and i put it in my palm at sunset and it caught the wind and took flight somewhere over mexico. i could kick myself for not having video of it. anyway. thanks for the post and the notes and the recommendations. Wish you were on our ship.. next time...happy birding!

[tuolumne couple]

Re Alaska. If you are including Anchorage, be sure to allow time for a Resurrection Bay or Kenai Fjords pre-cruise cruise in June....both kind of Puffins! Also huge flocks of Common Murre and a few Pigeon Guillemots. I took the early morning trainf from Anchorage and the midday 5-hour cruise with Major Marine (Capt. Gary).

 

 

 

In Glacier Bay, go out on the bow. Hopefully you will have the ebirder NPS naturalist (Nat) who can point out Kittletz's Murrelets! The bow and the 3rd deck Promenade are better than the back deck of 9 (I was on Noordam).

 

i agree, the bow is a great spot. for birds, or dolphins, or fish or the bay. i agree. i wont be in alaska this trip. taking the rotterdam out of tampa to aruba et al.... but i do thank you for your insight...