Subject: Birding on Victoria whale watching tours?
Date: May 14 11:12:34 2001
From: David Given-Seymour - mariner at orcawatch.com


I have been leading whale watching/bird watching trips in the San Juan
Islands for 18 years. Here are my recommendations.

1) The shorter the trip, the less you will see. Nearly all whale watch
boats know where the whales are before they leave the dock. Nearly all who
operate shorter trips will take a bee line course for the whales, watch
them, then turn around and travel straight home. On short trips, taking
detours through prime bird watching territory may not be possible. Birds
and whales are often not in the same places and whales take priority.

2) Bigger boats are better than smaller boats. On smaller boats (such as
inflatables) you are so close to the water that it is very difficult to see
very far -- especially if there is any type of wave action. Bigger boats
allow you to be higher off the water's surface, thus your visibility is much
improved.

If anyone would like to contact me off Tweeters for my recommendations as to
specific operators, please feel free to do so.

David Given-Seymour
mariner at orcawatch.com
www.orcawatch.com
-----Original Message-----
From: John & April Cocanower <cocabirds at wtez.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, May 14, 2001 7:02 AM
Subject: Birding on Victoria whale watching tours?


>My wife and I will be visiting the Vancouver and Victoria areas the last
>week of May and have been considering taking one of the 3 hr whale watching
>tours out of Victoria. While the whale watching would be the main focus,
>we're wondering how worthwhile the birding might be on this type of tour.
> Would we see birds that we wouldn't see on the ferry trip between
Vancouverand
>Vancouver Island? Also, since there seems to be quite a number of tour
>operators, can anyone recommend a particular tour operator that might be
>a better choice for birders?
>Thanks,
>
>John Cocanower
>Cypress, TX
>cocabirds at wtez.net
>