Thursday, November 30, 2023
Monday, November 20, 2023
December 2 (or 3) Newport pelagic has enough participants to go!
We are happy to announce that the winter pelagic scheduled out of Newport on December 2 (with December 3 as a weather date) has achieved the minimum sign-up that will allow us to run this trip. We did have a couple of people drop out, and so are hoping for a little more participation, but we are planning on going. This trip is arguably the best chance for birders to see Short-tailed Albatross, which is not guaranteed, but has been seen on past trips. Other seasonal specialities seen on this trip include Parakeet Auklet (once), Ancient Murrelet, Black-legged Kittiwake, and Short-tailed Shearwater. Not yet seen, but to be hoped for, would be Mottled Petrel -- is this the year?
Report of Crown Princess Repo Cruise, October 20-22, 2023
Report of a repositioning cruise between Vancouver, B.C. and San Francisco aboard Crown Princess from October 19-22, 2023. People included 7 birders as part of an Oregon Pelagic Tours trip, and 11 birders from the Portland area and Central Oregon. This report only includes bird lists from the two at-sea days. The weather and ocean were very decent. The first day we were able to bird above the bow on Deck 8; the second day we began on Deck 8, but were asked to bird from Deck 7, the Promenade Deck due to concerns about high winds. The birding was not exactly hot, but most of the species expected this time of year were eventually seen by at least some birders. Both Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses were seen, we had numbers of Pom Jaegers and one South Polar Skua, three species of shearwater, and the highlight, a Brown Booby! Mammal sightings were better, with Gray, Fin, Humpback and Minke whales seen, along with Dall's Porpoises, Common Dolphins, a possible beaked whale, an Elephant Seal and Northern Fur Seals.