Finding Wrentits

I finally got decent photos of Wrentit on July 30th. It was a bittersweet victory. The only reason I was there in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range was because high winds had forced the cancellation of our deep water pelagic trip scheduled for that day.

Pelagic trips can cancel any time of year. The best month, on average, for calm seas is July. But that didn't matter this day. Winds of 25 miles per hour were creating 6 foot wind waves, which would prevent our charter boat from making any headway and would make viewing conditions abominable. The winds were caused by a thermal low over northern California that creates strong north winds along the southern and central Oregon coast.

So here I was, checking out some onshore birding sites instead. It is my intention to create a small birding guide for just such occasions--where to go birding when your pelagic trip cancels (sad face).


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This location is found on the way to Drift Creek Falls, Site #54 on the Oregon Coast Birding Trail.

Head south from Lincoln City and turn E (left) on Drift Creek Rd 1.6 miles, then S (right) on South Drift Creek Rd 0.4 miles, then E (left) on Forest Service Road 17 and go 0.8 miles to the intersection with FS19. Walk this paved but mostly abandoned and unmaintained overgrown road to the southeast into the forest.

This is a great spot, May-August, for West Coast forest birds: Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Tanager, Swainson's Thrush, and Varied Thrush among many others.

Wrentits are secretive birds that crawl and fly-hop from branch to branch in the dense evergreen tangles of salal bushes. Besides their descending accelerated whistle song, they give rattling little contact notes: "dt-dt-dt-dt-dt" that you may be able to imitate by blowing an unvoiced 'D' through the tip of your tongue (4-6 notes at the rate of about 10 notes per second). Birds respond to this rattle all year, coming close to take a look.

So you want to see a Murphy's Petrel?

The eBird map above shows the Oregon locations of observed Murphy's Petrels on 4 cruise ship trips in May 2009-2011. You can click the map above for a larger view. The yellow markers are sighting locations for the most recent trip (May 20, 2011) on which I went with 7 other Oregon birders.

It turns out that cruise ships make repositioning cruises at the exact season (late April to mid-May) and exact distance offshore (45-65 miles) from Oregon to regularly find these rare solitary seabirds.

Cruises departing San Francisco just after noon will have dawn just off the California/Oregon border, then spend all day off the Oregon coast. Ships arrive in Vancouver, British Columbia the next morning, a trip of just under 48 hours. Other cruises also depart for Vancouver from Long Beach, and spend an extra day at sea (but may not be off Oregon for all or any of the daylight hours).

Murphy's Petrels are not attracted to boats as are some seabirds. So a spotting scope is necessary to see these amazing aerialists in their rapid, bounding flight. ID is difficult, so you may wish for experienced seabirders to travel with. And this far to sea total bird numbers are often quite low--Leach's Storm-Petrel is the most common bird.

Murphy's Petrel numbers vary from year-to-year. And each trip is different, depending upon location at sunrise, observer effort, and weather conditions. Of the 5 cruises in spring 2011 with birders aboard, only two of the trips saw Murphy's Petrel off Oregon (though all trips saw Murphy's Petrels in either Oregon or California waters, or both).

Total numbers of Murphy's Petrels off Oregon on recent cruises documented in eBird:
33 on May 8, 2009
46 on May 1, 2010
none on April 22, 2011
5 on May 11, 2011
none on May 13, 2011
none on May 15, 2011
5 on May 20, 2011

There are dedicated deepwater pelagic birding trips out of Santa Barbara and San Diego (mulit-day trip) that find these birds occasionally. But, by far, the easiest way to see these birds is to board a luxury ocean liner for these spring repositioning cruises.

Repositioning Cruise, San Francisco to Vancouver: May 19-21, 2011

Crossing under San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

Eight Oregon birders met in San Francisco to board the Coral Princess for its repositioning cruise to Vancouver, British Columbia. The ship departed in the afternoon of May 19th, and by dawn on the 20th was off Del Norte, County, California--that state's most northern county. We birders would spend the entire day traversing the entire Oregon coast, getting too dark to see birds just before crossing into Washington State waters.

Because of the shape of the Oregon coastline, the ship was about 35 miles off the southern Oregon coast, and 60 miles off the northern Oregon coast.

Cruise ships are the only reasonable way for birders to get to waters beyond 35 miles of shore--off the continental shelf. Pelagic birding trips using chartered fishing vessels barely reach 30 miles offshore and can only spend an hour or two before heading back to port. Thus, if you want to see deep water specialties (rarities), a cruise is the way to go.

Cruise birding is different from any other kind of birding you may do. It can be highly enjoyable and addicting, but disappointing if you do not know what to expect.



We started under sunny skies, with a bit of wind. Even with a later-than-scheduled departure, we were seeing albatrosses out the window by dinner time.

We awoke at dawn, had some breakfast, and made our way out on the Promenade Deck--Deck 7--which goes all the way around the ship. This particular ship did not have a covered deck on the bow as some ships do. This is an important feature for larger birding groups.



As you can see from the above photo, the birders were huddled out of the wind on the starboard side, amidships, under life boat #5. Water and air temperature were about 50F, wind in our face at 15-20 knots, and ship speed of 22 knots. That is about a 45 mile per hour breeze on the exposed parts of the ship! Nevertheless, the more experienced cruise birders noted that this was the most pleasant conditions of any previous spring trip! Brrr...

There also were fewer overall birds than on previous spring cruises, perhaps due to this later than usual cruise date. Oh, there were still birds aplenty, but many were quite distant. This proved to be a bit of detriment for me, as I will explain.

Cruise birding is far different than taking a pelagic birding trip on a chartered fishing boat. Of course, the ship is larger and you can use a scope on the calm decks. Food is included on your cruise price, with many dining rooms. But then, birders mostly want to stay on deck looking at birds during daylight hours, so knowing where the grill and pizza bar are located is important. And you can get a good night's sleep in your stateroom each night, rather than driving to the pelagic trip's port of departure in the predawn hours, as do many birders.

But the main difference between cruise ship birding and pelagic birding trips is how far you are from the birds. The pelagic trip is designed to go where the birds are and even chum them right up to the boat. Frankly, large ships scare birds. And watching from Deck 7, perhaps 40 feet above the water line, gives you about the same experience as a seawatch--watching birds from a coastal headland.

Cruise ship birding is done primarily with a spotting scope. Few birds are within 1/4 mile, or about the length of the ship. Many birds are spotted flying from the boat about 1/2 mile distant and are soon more than 2 miles distant. A scope, then, is essential. And some experience and study is needed to know what birds you are seeing--shape and flight style are essential, as lighting is often poor for picking up plumage colors and patterns.

The Pacific Loons above (one in breeding plumage and one not) were very close (for a cruise ship)--within 1/4 mile of the boat during our way out the San Francisco harbor.

This was of particular trouble for me, as I awoke on the 20th with a screaming headache--perhaps from dehydration during the previous busy travel day. For the first couple of hours it was difficult to even have my eyes open at all. Later, the headache went away, but I decided I would only use binoculars to bird--I didn't want that nauseating headache to return. Staring through my scope with one eye for an entire day, as water streamed constantly by, was a sure way to bring that headache back!

Using "binoculars only" meant that I was unable to identify shearwater-sized birds beyond about a mile and a quarter. I saw far fewer storm-petrels than the other birders (53 compared to 298). I identified no Cassin's Auklets, with about 19 seen by others throughout the day. Those birders using scopes could spot the storm-petrels and Cassin's Auklets out there a mile, and shearwaters out 3 or more miles.



There were numerous Long-tailed Jaegers seen, such as the bird above. This one was about 1/2 mile distant--about as close as they got to the ship.

But my headache didn't mean that I didn't see good birds--because I did!

While still in California waters, 2 Laysan Albatrosses flew by. Then Russ and I identified a Pterodroma by flight style, and a bit later my life Murphy's Petrel swooped up with the same flight style right alongside the boat! I observed 4 more in Oregon waters.

Only Owen Schmidt and Jeff Gilligan independently identified a single Ashy Storm-Petrel in Oregon waters. The light was bad, so they primarily had only flight style and shape to go by, but they did note the all-dark rump. There are about a half dozen sightings of this species in Oregon waters--unfortunately none seen well enough to pass a records committee yet. I think, for storm-petrels in general, a video showing it flying would be more helpful to a bird records committee to accept it than any but a very close series of photos.

Another rarity, a pair of Parakeet Auklets, were identified by Tim Shelmerdine, Russ Namitz, and David Smith. I got a glimpse in a borrowed scope, but couldn't make out any diagnostic field marks before they splashed back down in the water.

Entering Vancouver

Russ Namitz recorded overall numbers for the Oregon portion of the cruise, as follows (my personal sightings in parentheses):
Greater Scaup 1 (1)
Black-footed Albatross 19 (7)
Northern Fulmar 9 (10)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 1 (1)
Pink-footed Shearwater 2 (0)
Sooty Shearwater 1500+ (2336)
MURPHY'S PETREL 5 (4)
ASHY STORM-PETREL 1 (0)
Leach's Storm-Petrel 186 (45)
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 142 (10)
Whimbrel 12 (14)
Red Phalarope 624 (310)
Sabine's Gull 10 (3)
California Gull 1 (0)
Arctic Tern 7 (4)
South Polar Skua 6 (7)
Parasitic Jaeger 1 (1)
Long-tailed Jaeger 67 (43)
Common Murre 1 (0)
Cassin's Auklet 19 (0)
PARAKEET AUKLET 2 (0)
Rhinoceros Auklet 81 (9)

We also saw Northern Fur Seals, Northern Elephant Seal (Russ only), Dall's Porpoises, Humpback Whales, Sei Whale, Pilot Whales, Orcas.

So, the trip had a long-desired life bird (Murphy's Petrel), a missed lifer (Parakeet Auklet), and a missed state bird (Ashy Storm-Petrel). These were my three target birds for this trip. Well, I'll get those others another time.

Related previous posts you may find interesting if you are planning such a cruise.

Repositioning cruises (general information):
http://oregonseabirds.blogspot.com/2010/07/repositioning-cruises.html

Seabirds from boats (including cruise ship repositioning trips and costs):
http://oregonseabirds.blogspot.com/2011/02/seabirds-from-boats.html

Virtual seawatch at Boiler Bay, Oregon (viewing seabirds from a cruise ship is similar):
http://oregonseabirds.blogspot.com/2011/02/virtual-seawatch-at-boiler-bay-oregon.html