To add a bit to the information provided by Jim Holmes, his round-trip from San Francisco to Ensenada and back is a good new twist on the many "repositioning cruises" that birders have taken off the CA coast now for over 10 years. Jim's trip was not a repositioning cruise, but rather just a regular mini-cruise, but the spring repo cruises are primarily from San Diego (Holland America) or Los Angeles (Princess) up to Vancouver. Similar trips departing San Francisco get very little daylight in CA waters. And in no case do you want trips that add unwanted ports-of-call (other than Victoria), as that cuts down on daylight well offshore. These spring trips (mid-April to mid-May) are very good for Murphy's and Cook's Petrels and Laysan Albatrosses, good for Hawaiian Petrels, and great for lots of Black-footed Albatrosses, Fork-tailed and Leach's Storm-Petrels, Tufted Puffins, etc. Fall (September) trips, southbound, are good for all the standard fall pelagic species. Very rare trips in Nov/Dec are good for Mottled Petrel. Some Princess ships have the wrap-around bow deck that Jim's ship had, and which is great for observation AND PHOTOGRAPHY if it is not too windy and that deck is thus closed. If so, one birds one deck lower and just slightly back on one side or the other, depending on lighting, which is the only deck configuration available on the Holland America ships. One advantage of Jim's route is that you start and end at the same port, so no flight(s) needed if you live near the embarkation port. There are also 10-12 day round-trip cruises from San Francisco or L.A. up to Alaska and back on Princess between May-Sep that are excellent for deep-water and other pelagics, but much of that, of course, is north of CA.
For those interested in CA waters, the Holland America trips in spring get daylight in Santa Barbara north to San Francisco Counties and then the following morning in northern Humboldt and Del Norte. The Princess trips from L.A. get s. Monterey to s. Mendocino, but the next morning you are already in Oregon waters. (Nothing is wrong with OR and WA waters, mind you, as you get many of the desired species there as well.)
One uses a scope a bunch, but binoculars alone DO work for a bunch of the birds, and a lot of folks scan with binoculars but then zoom in with a scope for better views. But plenty of birds are quite close to the ship and provide for GOOD photography opportunities. The stability of these huge ships really helps!
After a two-year covid hiatus, a bunch of us are taking a Holland America cruise next week from San Diego to Vancouver from April 25-29. There is also a Princess trip with birders on board leaving L.A. on the 29th. And a couple other offerings in May.
--Paul Lehman, San Diego
Date: 4/19/22 3:17 pm
From: Jim Holmes via groups.io
Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Cruise Ship out of San Francisco
I got a few questions/suggestions regarding this trip, so some additional information....
This is basically a seawatch and you will need a scope. I would not
recommend just using binoculars. Basically, you find a spot out of the
wind with good light near the front of the ship and spend the day
scoping. It is not good for photography. Birds generally do not get
close to the massive ship.
As for price, we got 2 rooms (a balcony for me and my wife and an
indoor room across the hall for our two kids). For our 5 night trip,
our balcony was $533/person ($1,066 total). Our kids indoor room was
$429/person ($858 total). That includes everything (room, food,
entertainment, taxes, fees, port expenses, etc) but alcohol and tip
($15/day/person). I always get a balcony on these trips but I have
never done my seawatches from my room.
My eBird trip reports are here (you can see our route and the areas
where no reports are logged were when I took lunch with my family):
April 12: https://ebird.org/tripreport/48456
April 15: https://ebird.org/tripreport/48457
Happy to answer any other questions.
Thanks,
Jim Holmes
Sacramento, CA |