Burt and Tweeters,

I've never birded from the M.V. Coho (the ferry that operates between
Victoria and Port Angeles), but over the years, I've heard many
reports on the Victoria RBA from trips on this ferry.

Basically, it seems that few birds are seen in the middle of the
Strait of Juan de Fuca for most of the year. Locally breeding species
like Glaucous-winged Gulls, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Pigeon Guillemots
tend to feed mostly over the shallower waters close to shore, where
presumably there is more turbulence and better feeding conditions.

Tubenoses such as Sooty Shearwaters and Northern Fulmars, which are
common off the Washington coast and do feed far from land, don't seem
to enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca in significant numbers. The
exception is immediately after westerly gales in fall and winter, when
the birding can be quite good from the "Coho" (but never anything
like as good as an average Westport pelagic trip).

I have birded scores of times from the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay
(Vancouver to Victoria) ferry. The best birding from this ferry is
near the eastern and western termini of the run, and in Active Pass, a
narrow channel with strong tidal currents between Galiano and Mayne
Islands. I have learned from experience that, most of the time, it is
barely worth looking out the window as the ferry crosses the open
parts of Georgia Strait (about 15 miles across). The only birds one
usually sees here are a few gulls and Common Murres. Tubenoses rarely
enter the Strait of Georgia.

Among Washington ferry routes, the best one for birds seems to be the
Port Townsend/Keystone ferry, which crosses Admiralty Inlet, the
entrance to Puget Sound. (I've birded from this ferry quite a few
times.) There are sometimes impressive concentrations of birds here,
for the same reason as there are at Active Pass-- strong currents
which bring a lot of food items to the surface and provide great
feeding conditions for gulls, loons, cormorants, alcids, phalaropes,
and whatever. The San Juan Islands ferries are quite good too, in
winter but not in summer.

So basically, don't expect to see a lot of birds from the Port
Angeles/Victoria ferry, unless you specifically schedule your trip
after a westerly "blow". At least 95% of the time, the birding from
this ferry will be unimpressive.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: Guttman, Burt <GuttmanB at evergreen.edu>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 9:30 PM
Subject: (Not) Birding on ferries


> 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
>
>