26 Apr–2 May 2025 on Holland America (Eurodam) from San Diego to Vancouver: This 6-Day cruise with Holland American Cruises departs from San Diego at 4pm on 26 April.  We’ll have two full days at sea, then arrive in San Francisco on the morning of 29 April. The cruise departs San Francisco that afternoon and enjoys another full day at sea before arriving in Victoria on the afternoon of 1 May.  Finally we arrive in Vancouver on the morning of 2 May. No land excursions will be organized. WINGS price (guiding while on ship) is $890, plus the cost of your berth which should be booked directly with Holland America at the number below. Non-birders traveling with you are exempt from the WINGS charge. Berth prices for this cruise start at only about $769 per person (interior shared cabin) plus tax, gratuity, and port charges based on double occupancy (about $215). Details on booking a berth with Holland America Cruises can be found here.

3-7 May 2025 on Holland America (Zaandam) from San Diego to Vancouver: This 4-Day cruise with Holland American Cruises departs from San Diego in the afternoon.  The first stop is on day 2 in Avalon, departing early afternoon, followed by two full days at sea. The cruise arrives in Vancouver on the morning of 7 May. No land excursions will be organized. WINGS price (guiding while on ship) is $670 plus the cost of your berth which should be booked directly with Holland America at the number below. Non-birders traveling with you are exempt from the WINGS charge. Berth prices for this cruise start at only about $499 per person (interior shared cabin) plus tax, gratuity, and port charges based on double occupancy (about $140 per person). Details on booking a berth with Holland America Cruises can be found here. 

20-24 April 2026 on Holland America (Eurodam) from San Diego to Vancouver: This 4-Day cruise with Holland American Cruises departs from San Diego the afternoon of 20 April. Our only stop will be on day 2, with a half day in Avalon. Following this we’ll have two full days at sea before arriving in Vancouver on the morning of 24 April. No land excursions will be organized. WINGS price (guiding while on ship) is $XXX plus the cost of your berth which should be booked directly with Holland America at the number below. Non-birders traveling with you are exempt from the WINGS charge. Berth prices for this cruise start at only about $419 per person (interior shared cabin) plus tax, gratuity, and port charges based on double occupancy (about $XXX per person). Details on booking a berth with Holland America Cruises can be found here.

2-6 May 2026 on Princess Cruises (Grand Princess) from Los Angeles (San Pedro) to Vancouver: This 4-Day cruise with Princess Cruises departs from Los Angeles on the afternoon of 2 May. We’ll have two full days at sea, followed by port in Victoria the afternoon of 5 May, with final disembarkation in Vancouver the morning of 6 May. No land excursions will be organized. WINGS price (guiding while on ship) is $XXX plus the cost of your berth which should be booked directly with Princess at the number below. Non-birders traveling with you are exempt from the WINGS charge. Berth prices for this cruise start at only about $388 per person (interior shared cabin) plus tax, gratuity, and port charges based on double occupancy (about $130 per person). Details on booking a berth with Princess Cruises can be found here.

• April 2024 Narrative
• May 2024 Narrative
• April 2022 Narrative

April 2024 Narrative

Day 1: Our home for the tour, the Nieuw Amsterdam, left the dock at 415, and our group was on deck, excited to see what we could find on our way out to cruising depth! Passing out of the port, we steamed to the West, with the distant Coronado Islands in view to our south. As we made our way into the deep waters, we started seeing our first tubenoses of the trip. Several Black-vented Shearwaters made their way among the waves while Black Storm-Petrels funneled by. Between the distant islands, a feeding flock had convened with several Cocos Brown Boobies feeding over them. One of the leaders spotted an Ashy Storm-Petrel in the fray and the ship flushed a pair of Scripp’s Murrelets. The most unusual bird of the afternoon was a Black Tern on a piece of flotsam. We remained on deck until almost 8pm, then retired indoors for our nightly countdown; we’d repeat this routine pretty much every evening, further stoking the excitement for what the next day might bring! 

Day 2: Within twelve minutes of arriving on deck at first light, our first bird of the day made a pass on the port side: a Laysan Albatross! Several of the participants were able to get on the smallest albatross to regularly occur on our Pacific coast. In the next half hour, we’d also see two distant Goose-beaked Whales (formerly known as Cuvier’s Beaked Whales). These incredible cetaceans hold the record for the longest and deepest dives of any vertebrate at over 3 hours and to almost 10,000 feet! The 7am hour would bring a few more Laysan Albatross and our first Hawaiian Petrel! These rangy petrels are one of our big targets for Spring trips and it was great to see one so early on our first full day at sea. Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwater numbers increased over the course of the day, and we also spotted a few Northern Fulmars in the mix. Along our route, we routinely saw other more “expected” seabirds, such as Rhinoceros and Cassin’s Auklet, Common Murre, and Black-footed Albatross. As our day ended on the southern edge of San Francisco County waters, we were treated to the spectacle of several dozen Northern Right Whale Dolphins porpoising to the north! These unique dolphins lack a dorsal fin and can be mistaken for seals! Afterwards, our group did our daily wrap-up and parted ways until the morning.  

Day 3: “BAIRD’S BEAKED WHALES!” Having started the day in Humboldt County waters after motoring north overnight, our day was rather similar to our first day at sea, with many of the routine cast of characters until 730, when both leaders looked along the ship and saw a pod of 10 large brown cetaceans logging at the surface. We knew immediately that these were the secretive Baird’s, a much sought-after species of the West Coast. These incredible beakers stayed at the surface for several minutes, allowing all on deck to study and photograph them. As if attracted to the commotion, we were joined by several Murphy’s Petrels, another of our Spring Repo targets, and one we’d see throughout the entire day. These high-arcing petrels superficially resemble Sooty Shearwaters, but are rather a cold gray instead of brown, and have a shorter, blockier head and longer tail proportionally. Both Leach’s and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels began to join the show, giving the occasional close pass as they headed north past the ship.

Around 9am, we noticed several all-black “footballs” flying away, the telltale description of Tufted Puffin! We saw 4 during this period, though never too close to the ship. By this point, we’d been seeing decent numbers of Murphy’s Petrels, and could almost identify them at a distance by which direction they were going; Murphy’s were heading South to their breeding grounds, while Sooty Shearwaters were heading North for their feeding grounds!

After lunch, a few of us noticed a small “white-bellied” petrel off the port side. Getting a few people on this bird, we noticed it had shorter wings and tail, with a “ratty” looking upperwing: Cook’s Petrel!! We’d get another shot at this species before the afternoon was over, but never with great looks. As our day ended in Oregon waters, all of the passengers were still buzzing with the electricity of the day, as well as from having seen over 240 Murphy’s! 

Day 4: Much of day 4 was spent ashore for many of the participants, as we enjoyed a quiet day anchored off Astoria, OR. Our group gathered around 4pm near the ship’s thrusters, to enjoy a primer on gull ID. Gathered in the turbid waters were Short-billed, Ring-billed, California, Herring, Western, and Glaucous-winged Gulls! We discussed the various field marks, and everyone got to enjoy different ages of these challenging birds as well. As we got underway, we enjoyed good looks at several near-shore species, such as Pigeon Guillemot, Northern Sea Lion, and Harbor Seal. We cleared the breakwall about an hour before dark and were on our way north.  

Day 5: In order to make up for delays in port, the Captain had decided to pick up speed overnight, so while we had hoped to enjoy the views of Cape Flattery and Tatoosh Island, we instead found ourselves in the Strait of Juan De Fuca at first light. As the fog cleared around us, we enjoyed the beauty of the Washington coastline and were even treated to a glimpse at a few of the resident Orca along the way! We docked around 9am, and our group dispersed to enjoy Victoria, BC. Our farewell dinner that evening was phenomenal, and all seemed to thoroughly enjoy their meals! We had our final countdown of the trip, talked about everyone’s favorite moments, then said our goodbyes, another successful Spring Repositioning Cruise concluded! 

-          Ed Corey

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May 2024 Narrative

Day 1: A late departure for a deep cleaning of the berths had our ship, the Sapphire Princess, underway around 530pm. Our group was on the open bow, excited to see what we could find on our way out to cruising depth! Leaving port, we picked up quite a few inshore birds, including Black Oystercatcher and Black-crowned Night Heron. As we exited the breakwall towards the Channel Islands, our group saw our first Sooty Shearwaters and Red-necked Phalaropes of the trip, as well as a few Black and Ashy Storm-Petrels. Feeding Humpback Whales could be seen in all directions. Much to our collective surprise, two Fin Whales decided to dive under the bow! It was incredible to see these massive mammals, the second largest species of whale in the world at upwards of 70 feet, so close.  

Day 2: Leaders arrived on deck by 6am to see what the seas had to offer. Because of the strong 30-kt head wind and 12-14 foot seas, the Captain had decided to head further offshore than the usual tack, so we powered offshore of Santa Barbara County. Over the course of the day, we would maintain a route from 80-110 nautical miles from shore, putting us in waters that are not often covered by repositioning cruises! Our first Hawaiian Petrel made a distant pass just after 7am. At roughly 730, someone yelled out “TROPICBIRD!”. Two Red-billed Tropicbirds were spotted on the water, then proceeded to fly ahead of the ship. We would later pick up 2 more of these large white birds throughout the day, only the second time they’ve been seen on a West Coast repositioning cruise! Before the hour was up, we’d also see our first Cook’s Petrels of the trip, as well as a second Hawaiian, providing great identification lessons on the “expected” white-bellied petrels of these trips.  The marine mammals kept us entertained, with both Short-beaked and Long-beaked Common, as well as Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Goose-beaked Whale, Northern Fur Seal and California Sea Lion being seen. We also so large aggregations of Velella (also known as By-the-wind Sailors), as well as several Ocean Sunfish or Mola, which feed on these small hydrozoans. Around 130p, still in Santa Barbara County due to our tach, our first Laysan Albatross of the trip showed up in association with the more common Black-footed Albatrosses we’d seen throughout the day. These smallest of our 3 North Pacific albatross species are one of our key targets on the Spring trips, so we were glad to have great looks on the first full day at sea! We’d spend the rest of the day in San Luis Obispo County, before arriving in Monterey County for the evening. 

Day 3: Traveling through the night, we arrived on deck in San Francisco County to a respectable push of Red Phalaropes, with a smaller proportion of Red-necked birds in the mix. Looking over the bow, one of our leaders spotted a dark gray bird with strongly bent wings; our first Murphy’s Petrel for the cruise! These birds are often confused with the much more common Sooty Shearwater, but again are gray instead of chocolate brown. They also have a much shorter, blockier head and a longer tail proportionally. We’d see two individuals during this hour, both at reasonably close range. We also began picking up a decent movement of both Leach’s and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, with many passing within close range of the bow for everyone to see. Sabine’s Gulls and both Common and Arctic Terns would slowly trickle North ahead of us throughout the day.
 The Marine Mammal kept us on our toes as well, adding Sperm and Sei Whales and a female Northern Elephant Seal under the bow! In the 2pm hour, offshore of Humboldt County, we were joined by “rooster-tailing” Dall’s Porpoise. These speedy black-and-white cetaceans throw a tell-tale forward spray when their dorsal fins break the water, so they can be identified at quite a distance! We would end the day exiting Del Norte County and entering Curry County, Oregon. 

Day 4: Our third full day at sea would find us traveling steadily closer to shore, from Lincoln County, Oregon to Clallam County, Washington. The nearer proximity to shore, coupled with strong winds from the East overnight, meant more migrating landbirds for our participants. A group of 3 Hudsonian Whimbrels kept pace with the ship for almost 3 hours before finally heading off to the North. We’d also see Wandering Tattler, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper and several swallows during this part of the transit. Getting into the cooler water off Washington meant increased chances at Tufted Puffin, and we were able to eke out a few good looks at this large, dark alcids!  Around 5pm, we were notified of a pod of Orca being seen distantly from the starboard side. After a bit of initial struggle, we finally got all those in attendance on these amazing predators that were roughly 2-3 miles away.  We were not able to confirm if they were the local Resident, fish-eating pods or the Transient/Bigg’s mammal-eaters, but numbers seen suggest the latter. We wrapped up our tour that evening with a delightful dinner and final countdown. We reminded those who joined that there was supposed to be a large geomagnetic storm that evening, with the Aurora Borealis being seen as far south as Alabama! Several of us were able to take in this once-in-a-lifetime event, truly the most outstanding highlight one could wish for on a trip into northern waters. Around 1030pm, the captain came over the speakers and informed us that the ship was down to one thruster, and we would have to limp into port in Vancouver, arriving at 11am instead of our anticipated arrival time of 7am. The evening ended in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. 

Day 5: Our final day aboard the Sapphire Princess was spent slowly heading towards Vancouver. We arrived around 11am and passed a few of our participants as we disembarked. While not the way we’d have preferred to end such a great cruise, we can say that this little disruption could never erase all the highlights we enjoyed along the journey!

-          Ed Corey

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April 2022 Narrative

In April, WINGS BIRDING TOURS boarded the cruise ship Discovery in the Port of L.A. for a short but dynamic voyage up the Pacific to Vancouver, BC. A troop of birders had just ran the route a few days earlier than our voyage and they had turned up some great sightings so we were pretty stoked to get underway and see what the far offshore waters would yield for us!

We got underway in the dim light of the evening, nothing of note was recorded that night but the next morning dawn found us off the coast of Santa Barbara still close enough to shore to get a nice selection of gulls as well as another inshore specialty and the only ones we would see on the tour, Black-vented Shearwaters. But we would quickly leave the sight of land and move off the continental shelf into the waters inhabited by various members of the tubenose family. Pink-footed Shearwaters and Black-footed Albatrosses made regular showings and slowly but surely the quarry we sought began to be encountered. Not long after reaching deeper water we saw our first Cook’s Petrels. We would only see a handful of these handsome beasts, but served alongside with our first Laysan Albatross, no one minded too much. Flocks of Sabine’s Gulls were not infrequent, and we plowed through many large flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes. Apparently a few days later, observers at Point Pinos in Monterey Bay would record exceptional numbers of migrant Red-necks; highest ever for that site and we certainly got a nice slice of what the Pinos birders were going to get in a few days.

The winds were pretty strong out there in the deep, but that worked in our favor and though we would not have too many Cook’s Petrels, by midday we had recorded a handful of another major target species, those tasty chocolate treats that are Murphy’s Petrels! We also had a few alcids scattered about, little pods of Rhinoceros and Cassin’s Auklets. Late in the afternoon we were really thrilled to have our first Hawaiian Petrel of the trip! While not the only one we would see this voyage, it was the only one we would see on what turned out to be an incredible day on the ocean. As we moved across the outer mouth of the Monterey Bay that evening, we were treated to thousands of Sooty Shearwaters moving northwards, peppered with Pink-footed Shearwaters and our only Short-tailed Shearwater of the trip.

The next morning we were docked in San Francisco for a day at port. Various tour participants wandered this lovely city, and this break allowed a certain tour-leader a chance to go repair his busted tripod as well as bumping into a family of Chestnut-backed Chickadees outside the camera shop. We boarded the ship later that afternoon to head back out. It was quite the experience sailing out from underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. As we left San Francisco Bay we were treated to lots of Common Murres and Surf Scoters milling about, along with several flocks of Western and Clark’s Grebes.

Our next full day at sea was simply put- fantastic! Northwest winds had blown all night long and even a ship as large as the Discovery did a bit of rolling through the waves. But choppy seas often equals dynamic seabirding and today certainly was the case. Dawn found us somewhere off the shelf on the watery borders of Mendocino and Humboldt counties and we had our first Murphy’s Petrel of the day before our first hour of birding had ended. Their numbers would build all morning culminating in a flock of 47 roosting in the waves before the passing of the ship kicked them up! We would record a total of 139 for the tour- one of the higher totals ever recorded in North American waters! Our first half of the day was in California waters and late in the afternoon passed into Oregon. Same as yesterday, we had nice numbers of Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, lots of Black-footed Albatrosses, some Northern Fulmars, our first Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels along with some Leach’s Storm-Petrels along with steady numbers of Sabine’s Gulls punctuated by Long-tailed and Pomarine Jaegers. And we had some rarities again as well. No Cook’s Petrels today, but we encountered 7 more Hawaiian Petrels and a handful of Laysan Albatrosses.

Our final morning at sea we woke in northern Washington State. We wouldn’t get any Pteradroma petrels today, there were lots of Black-footed Albatrosses milling about. Our first couple hours we cleaved through large flocks of Red Phalaropes, many in full breeding dress, the morning sun illuminating their brick red coloration. As we drew closer to shore, alcids became more commonly sighted including several Tufted Puffins. Good numbers of Pacific Loons winged by as did several flocks of migrant ducks. We turned inward towards Victoria through the Straits of Juan de Fuca as our Sabine’s Gulls morphed into flocks of Bonaparte’s and the occasional flock of Brants would fly by. We pulled in to dock in Victoria where several Pigeon Guillemots were there to greet us, becoming the last species to be recorded on this year’s tour.

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