Several people have mentioned success in birding on some of our ferries as
they cross Puget Sound to various destinations, and I've certainly seen a
number of interesting birds, such as alcids, on ferry trips, as well as the
ubiquitous gulls. So I've assumed that ferry trips would generally be
rewarding in a birdy way. But we recently did the trip from Port Angeles
over to Victoria, returning later in the day--we had done the same trip a
couple of years ago--and was surprised and disappointed to see virtually
nothing from the ferry, except a few gulls at the harbors at the ends of the
ride. And I had essentially the same experience last summer when we took a
ferry from Denmark (Gedser) down to Germany (Rostock), crossing the Baltic
Sea. I saw some interesting gulls around the ports, but in
between--nothing! Now, I've been on pelagic birding trips and have observed
marine birds both flying and on the water from boats that were bouncing
around a whole lot more than any ferry does. We also took an Alaska trip a
few years ago during which we spent a week in coastal waters from a very
small cruise ship, and I saw quite a few birds then. I kept expecting, on
these ferry trips, to at least see birds flying away as the ferry
approached, but I saw nothing. Does anyone have comments or explanations
for the differences? Has anyone had the same experience?

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503