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hvbaskey
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I will be cruising in December with stops on St. Lucia, Antigua, St.Kitts and Barbados as well as Dominican Republic ( which we just were given to replace St. Maarten ). Are there any good birding spots or endemic birds on any of these ? I have found little information so far.

To follow up on St. Maarten, I am a Florida resident and have seen reports on the loss of most endangered snail kite nests and similar problems. The scale of destruction from these storms, to humans and to nature, is vast.

 

Margaret

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How did you find Costanera Sur reserve, on your own? We have a spare afternoon and were thinking of going there, if time permits. Marcelo said it is a gated reserve, so quite safe, as compared to other parts of BA.

 

Actually, we were adjacent to it, on the public walkway along the water, instead of walking inside it. Still, with little effort we tallied 32 species, half of which were lifers. In addition to those on the water, there were numerous birds in the reeds and small islands and shallows. You should be able to get a local map from any of the large hotels. Ask the concierge.

 

Your trip with Marcelo looks good. We considered it, but on this trip we will be with another (non-birding) couple, and they had no interest in any longer-distance jaunt.

 

We are leaving tomorrow on a cruise from San Francisco down the coast to the Mexican Riviera. I'm looking forward to the birding during the first three days at sea. A pelagic tour operator did a run yesterday with good results. Will report back if it is worthwhile.

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We are leaving tomorrow on a cruise from San Francisco down the coast to the Mexican Riviera. I'm looking forward to the birding during the first three days at sea. A pelagic tour operator did a run yesterday with good results. Will report back if it is worthwhile.

 

As it turns out, the pelagic birding was a bust, but the land birding somewhat made up for it. The only real action at sea was on sailing out of San Francisco. The true "at sea" days were mostly devoid of bird life, as can often be the case. The more interesting species are listed below:

 

Leaving SF: Heermann's gull, common murre, Brandt's cormorant, elegant tern, sooty shearwater

 

At sea toward Puerto Vallarta: red-footed booby, brown booby

 

Puerto Vallarta: neotropic cormorant, striated heron, great-tailed grackle, San Blas jay (lifer)

 

Manzanillo: blue-footed booby (single individual, on breakwater when leaving), wood stork, both frigatebirds, least bittern, broad-billed hummingbird, golden-cheeked woodpecker (lifer), social flycatcher, green jay

 

Mazatlan: great kiskadee, long-billed curlew, white-winged dove, white ibis, the usual waders

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I am glad I saw this thread, I will be disembarking Zaandam Jan 6, 18 at Buenos Aires. I will certainly check into your recommended guides to go birding for few days before flying home.

 

Frank & Annette using CC Forums mobile app

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Highlights of Birding, Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, October 2017, with Princess.

1. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: I had chores and shopping to do and only did some birding around the ship. I did meet Gerardo Hernandez, gerardomexico@yahoo.com.mx, who is a birding guide. He sounded very knowledgeable about the local birds.

2. Huatulco, Mexico: I had arranged a birding trip with Cornelio Ramos, birdguidecornelio@yahoo.com.mx, for a six hour tour. My wife and I were the first people off the ship at 8 a.m. and Cornelio was waiting. We only had a short drive before we were birding and had a good day. We saw a total of 53 species. I had 15 lifers for the day. The highlight of the day was a Collared Forest-Falcon. I highly recommend Cornelio.

There is a small market/park right off the cruise dock that had birds.

Try to get off the ship as soon as possible since the birding slowed down dramatically as the day heated up.

3. Aruba: I had arranged to go birding with a local birder, Michiel Oversteegen, michieloversteegen@gmail.com. The ship didn’t dock until 1 p.m. and it was very hot. (I’m from Alaska, anything over 75 degrees is hot.) Despite the heat and time of day Michiel and his son, “Eagle Eye Sven”, put us on some good birds. I didn’t keep track of the total number of species but got 6 lifers. The highlight of the trip was a Ruby-Topaz Hummingbird. I think someone with an early morning start would do better. I recommend contacting Michiel if your ship stops in Aruba.

 

4. Ft. Lauderdale: We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn Ft. Lauderdale Airport North Cruiseport Hotel before flying home. There was an overgrown, fenced in lot behind the hotel. I was there at dawn and was surprised at the number of warblers. I even got a lifer, Northern Parula. (The hotel was pleasant and had good shuttle service to/from the airport.)

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Highlights of Birding, Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, October 2017, with Princess.

2. Huatulco, Mexico: I had arranged a birding trip with Cornelio Ramos, birdguidecornelio@yahoo.com.mx, for a six hour tour. My wife and I were the first people off the ship at 8 a.m. and Cornelio was waiting. We only had a short drive before we were birding and had a good day. We saw a total of 53 species. I had 15 lifers for the day. The highlight of the day was a Collared Forest-Falcon. I highly recommend Cornelio.

There is a small market/park right off the cruise dock that had birds.

Try to get off the ship as soon as possible since the birding slowed down dramatically as the day heated up.

 

Will definitely mark this down! we will be visiting Huatulco in March 2020 (Celebrity Eclipse repo cruise from Chile). I was hoping to find a guide for this port of call :)

 

Heather

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Just completed a 12-day HAL cruise from Buenos Aires to Rio round-trip. As usual, took my scope for balcony birding. The following are some of the more interesting species.

 

2/17-19 Buenos Aires: Chimango caracara, southern lapwing, monk parakeet, roseate spoonbill, spot-winged pigeon, rufous hornero, white-necked (cocoi) heron, whistling heron, southern screamer, coscoroba swan, white-faced whistling duck, silver teal, rosy-billed pochard, cinereous harrier, grey-necked wood-rail, red-gartered coot, picui ground-dove, grey-breasted martin

 

2/20 Punta del Este & surrounding hills with guide: Southern lapwing, monk parakeet, roseate spoonbill, rufous hornero, whistling heron, silver teal, picui ground-dove, grey-breasted martin, greater rhea, giant wood-rail, white-winged coot, picazuro pigeon, guira cuckoo, white-throated hummingbird, white woodpecker, stripe-crowned spinetail, variable antshrike, rufous-bellied thrush, chalk-browed mockingbird, tropical parula, chestnut-backed tanager, diademed tanager, red-crested cardinal, rufous-collared sparrow, brown-and-yellow marshbird, hooded siskin

 

2/21-22 At Sea northbound: Manx shearwater, Atlantic petrel

 

2/23-24 Rio de Janeiro & visit to coffee plantation: Pale-vented pigeon, brown booby, red-shouldered macaw, black jacobin, golden-winged cacique, Sick's (ashy-tailed) swift, ruby-crowned tanager, masked water-tyrant

 

2/25 Buzios: Masked booby, magnificent frigatebird

 

2/26 Ilha Grande: Magnificent frigatebird, brown booby, masked water-tyrant, plumbeous rail, plain parakeet, rufous casiornis, ruby-crowned tanager

 

2/27 Santos: Roseate spoonbill

 

2/28 Itajai: Roseate spoonbill, kelp gull, great kiskadee, tropical kingbird, black-necked stilt, chimango caracara, bare-faced ibis

 

3/1 At Sea southbound: Black-browed albatross, yellow-nosed albatross, Manx shearwater, white-chinned petrel, spectacled petrel, Cory's shearwater

 

3/3 Buenos Aires with guide: Rufescent tiger-heron, white-necked heron, whistling heron, plumbeous heron, fulvous whistling-duck, cocoroba swan, speckled teal, silver teal, rosy-billed pochard, Brazilian duck, roadside hawk, red-gartered coot, red-fronted coot, limpkin, southern lapwing, picazuro pigeon, eared dove, monk parakeet, glittering-bellied emerald, green-barred woodpecker, rufous hornero, cattle tyrant, streaked flycatcher, white-winged becard, masked gnatcatcher, rufous-bellied thrush, creamy-bellied thrush, sayaca tanager, greyish saltator, yellow-billed cardinal, epaulet oriole,solitary cacique

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I will post more details later, but we had a lovely time birding South America (via Cruising!). Although the land trips yielded the most # of species, I found the Sea Days extra special. Here is my blog report as we approached "Cape Horn"

 

Cape Horn - Birds!

 

Heather

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi All - My wife (not a birder!) and I will be sailing on the Volendam from Yokohama to Vancouver April 25-May 9. Are there any other birders booked for this cruise? We will be passing through some potentially very interesting seabird and marine mammal waters (not to mention the shore stops): Off Japan I am hoping for things like Laysan Albatross, Streaked Shearwater, Kamchatka, Black-tailed, Vega and Slaty-backed Gulls, and just possibly Swinhoe's and Tristram's Storm Petrels and nearshore specialties like Temminck's Cormorant, Japanese Murrelet and Spectacled Guillemot [not to mention such marine mammals as the Northern Right Whale Dolphin]. We may see nothing, of course, but the more eyes we have...

 

Anyone interested is welcome to check out my blog A Wandering Naturalist at ronorenstein.blogspot.com, though I warn you that it is seriously out of date.

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Trip Report from Montevideo, Uruguay [Dec 25 2017]. Interesting to note that CELEBRITY offered a 1/2 day birding tour! YES! they did as part of their shore excursions. I was so happy to see that! It was called, “Birding West Montevideo” and was actually reasonably priced out. We did not participate in the offering, as we had a private guide lined up. We did however see the Celebrity Group come in, when we were leaving our first location. It was super great to see a good group of people from the ship interested in birding!

 

https://baskeytravels.com/montevideo-uruguay/

 

MVD_Bird6-M.jpg

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Heather, love, love, love your blog on your South America trip. My partner and I will be on a similar cruise (Celebrity Eclipse) this December and hope we are as lucky as you were with the birds!  I have been thinking about which ports to do on our own and which to book tours. Your details provide great information about what to expect and what might be possible if we do decide to do on our own. But learning that we will be able to see so many things from our balcony has me really excited!  Was your room on the land side of the ship (I guess for your trip that would have been starboard). We are starboard but going the opposite direction. I am thinking that the views are going to be spectacular from either side. 

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On 10/9/2019 at 9:51 AM, njhh said:

Heather, love, love, love your blog on your South America trip. My partner and I will be on a similar cruise (Celebrity Eclipse) this December and hope we are as lucky as you were with the birds!  I have been thinking about which ports to do on our own and which to book tours. Your details provide great information about what to expect and what might be possible if we do decide to do on our own. But learning that we will be able to see so many things from our balcony has me really excited!  Was your room on the land side of the ship (I guess for your trip that would have been starboard). We are starboard but going the opposite direction. I am thinking that the views are going to be spectacular from either side. 


Thank you for your very kind words.  Yes, we were starboard (land facing).  We had great views, however going through the Chilean Fjords / Magellan Strait - you will have land on both sides.  As well, the best views I had was on the promenade deck (able to switch sides easy enough) and the Oceanview Buffet/Bar outdoor area (aft facing) where many birds were diving into the wake.

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On 7/28/2018 at 7:20 AM, hvbaskey said:

Trip Report from Puerto Madryn, Argentina [29 Dec 2017]

On 7/28/2018 at 7:20 AM, hvbaskey said:

Trip Report from Puerto Madryn, Argentina [29 Dec 2017]

I still need to add the full species list/count - but it gives a general idea of what we did with our hired Guide.

 

Hi Heather,  I've procrastinating about this, but feel that full disclosure is needed.  As you may remember, I too was booked with Agustín Esmoris of “Birding Puerto Madryn the day after your trip.  I was sailing on the Emerald Princess in the opposite direction as your Celebrity Cruise and had been communication with Agustin since August with good results.  

 

Bottom line is that Agustin called when I was on the dock awaiting his arrival the morning of the trip, canceling his trip with me.  He reported having a cold. Apparently you guys "over stressed" him the day before! HaHa! He reported that you 'll had a good day of birding.   I appreciate that people become ill, but I was quite disappointed.  I had prepaid through PayPal. The final straw, and the reasons I am posting are that it took 2 emails & 3 weeks to receive my refund through PayPal, minus $15.70 fee.  When I emailed Agustin re: this fee amount, I received no reply.

 

I have hired many international bird guides and have never had a problem like this.   I am a person who believes "things happen for a reason," but I don't believe I was treated fairly by Agustin.  

I would NOT recommend him to others.  

Cinda Crosley

 

Quote

 

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  • 2 years later...

Thought I would resurrect this topic as I'm currently researching guides for day tours on my Jan/Feb Auckland to Sydney cruise.

 

Was nice to see Binkie's name come up as I booked him for the day last December when in St Maarten. He's still birding and guiding strong. We had a great day which included a few lifers.

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On 7/10/2022 at 3:26 PM, brngckn said:

Thought I would resurrect this topic as I'm currently researching guides for day tours on my Jan/Feb Auckland to Sydney cruise.

 

Was nice to see Binkie's name come up as I booked him for the day last December when in St Maarten. He's still birding and guiding strong. We had a great day which included a few lifers.

 

We birded a lot on our Auckland to Sydney cruise - key highlights were:

1.  Muriwai Gannet Colony - DIY if you can, don't need a guide.  
2.  Bird the Hauraki Gulf Islands - ferry tickets from Auckland, take the $10 pp guided tour, they are amazing naturalists / birders.   Tiritiri Matangi is predator-free and *amazing*
3.  IF you stop in Wellington, massive open sanctuary - we booked on our own (DIY / Free Shuttle by Sanctuary) and did the guided tour.  The guides are "amazing" and will point out all the local birds and then after your tour, you can stay all day and go back to visit the key areas they pointed out.

Cheers,  Heather

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2 hours ago, hvbaskey said:

 

We birded a lot on our Auckland to Sydney cruise - key highlights were:

1.  Muriwai Gannet Colony - DIY if you can, don't need a guide.  
2.  Bird the Hauraki Gulf Islands - ferry tickets from Auckland, take the $10 pp guided tour, they are amazing naturalists / birders.   Tiritiri Matangi is predator-free and *amazing*
3.  IF you stop in Wellington, massive open sanctuary - we booked on our own (DIY / Free Shuttle by Sanctuary) and did the guided tour.  The guides are "amazing" and will point out all the local birds and then after your tour, you can stay all day and go back to visit the key areas they pointed out.

Cheers,  Heather

 

Thank you! We do have a scheduled stop in Wellington. 

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