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I just returned from a twelve day cruise from San Francisco to Alaska and back.
While I knew July was not a great time to bird southeastern Alaska, I was cautiously optimistic of making some new finds. While we had organized shore excursions for every port day, we still hoped to have a few hours available to bird various locations highlighted in the excellent ABA guide to Alaska.
July 1st - sail from SF at 6pm.
In port I saw quite a number of birds.
California Gull
Royal Tern
Caspian Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Rock Dove
Brown Pelican
Western Gull
Mew Gull
Common Murre
On leaving the bay, we were treated to an amazing whale show.
July 2nd - at sea
Its very frustrating looking at dark smudges flying in the distance. Eventually I did get close enough to identify a couple of lifers
Sooty Shearwater (L)
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (L)
July 3rd and 4th - Victoria and Inside Passage
Glaucous-winged Gull
Pigeon Guillemot
Great Blue Heron
Northwestern Crow
Cassin's Auklet (L)
Rhinoceros Auklet (L)
Tufted Puffin (L)
Herring Gull
Bald Eagle
Barn Swallow
Marbled Murrelet (L)
Kittlitz's Murrelet (L)
Leach's Storm-Petrel (L)
Also close up action viewing Orca's from a tour in Victoria.
July 5th - Ketchikan. The wettest place in America, and it was!
We had a rainforest walk which produced:
Northern Waterthrush (L)
Tree Swallow
Townsend's Warbler
In town we followed the ABA guide and walked the creek finding:
Swainson's Thrush (L)
Rufous Hummingbird
Violet-Green Swallow
Varied Thrush
Sadly no American Dipper, though this is a good spot for them.
July 6th - Sitka
A morning on the water produced nothing new, but some good whale watching.
A walk around the park in the afternoon produced:
Cedar Waxwing
Least Sandpiper
Pelagic Cormorant
Brandt's Cormorant
Belted Kingfisher
That night we made for open water and the highlight of the trip:
Black-footed Albatross (L)
July 7th - Skagway
A walk produced:
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-breasted Merganser
Following a helicopter flight to the glacier where we met dog teams and drove around on sleds, we spotted:
Arctic Terns (L)
July 8th - Glacier Bay
Bonaparte's Gull
July 9th - Wrangell
A boat trip to the Anan River Bear Observatory. Great sightings of one Brown Bear and many Black Bears, one just ten feet from the walkway.
Red-throated Loon (L)
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Winter Wren
Greater Yellowlegs
Hermit Thrush
Yellow Warbler (L)
Two days at sea produced nothing, hardly a bird in sight, perhaps we were too far out.
Coming into SF Bay, I did see a Heermann's Gull for a total of 49 birds for the trip.
Great list Mike...how many lifers for you?
[QUOTE=joannechattaway;1243175]Great list Mike...how many lifers for you?[/QUOTE]
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