Birds in the middle of the ocean

[Q-step]

We are just off the 08/27 crossing from S'Ton to NYC. Every day at sea we saw birds flying out over the ocean. Some were far enough away that you could only see them with good binoculars and they were headed away from us, so that would seem to rule out them roosting on the ship.

Where do they come from? How can they survive 1,000 miles from shore?

[navybankerteacher]

Sea birds, of course, can be seen virtually anywhere on the Atlantic. But on every one of our T/A's we have had land birds with us, and visible most days. I expect they periodically fly off to see if they can find land, but are savvy enough to return to the ship before they drop into the sea from exhaustion. There seems to be enough miscellaneous food spillage on open decks to support them.

[zider]

The Artic Tern flies from the Artic to the Antarctic & back every year a round trip of 56.000 miles & depending on the winds it can be considerably further So seeing birds at sea is not a rare occurrence .

[Capt_BJ]

those were all snow birds

 

so familiar to us in Florida

[Thaxted]

Zider is right. If you're seeing birds far from shore, they're almost certainly terns. We've seen them on every crossing, although not every day. If there are lots of them, it means that there are lots of fish as well and so a better than usual chance of sighting dolphins or whales.

[goodsailors]

They could also be Manx Sheerwater's. we saw quite a number on our T/A.

[Cruise NH]

On our 48 day wc segment through the South Pacific, we often saw birds out flying just above the waves when we were days away from land. We happened upon the Commodore one day and asked him if they 'lived' on the ship. He said no, that these birds have the ability to sort of turn off half their brain and 'sleep' while flying.

 

Amazing...

[Thaxted]

They could also be Manx Sheerwater's. we saw quite a number on our T/A.

 

I forgot about the shearwaters. Thanks for the reminder.

[navybankerteacher]

Wilsons petrels, which nest in the far south during the southern summer (northern hemisphers's winter) come north for our warm season, say May through November, and spend much of that time at sea in the North Atlantic

[old fool]

Possibilities include, but not limited to:

SOOTY SHEARWATER

CORY'S SHEARWATER

GREATER SHEARWATER

MANX SHEARWATER

WILSON'S STORM PETREL (quite small and can seem to "walk" across the water)

SOUTH POLAR SKUA (large heavy gull like seen as single birds - not flocks)

 

Mid-ocean species seen are probably not terns. Species found in mid ocean only come to land for breeding / nesting. They spend the rest of their life totally at sea.

[ToadOfToadHall]

On a recent cruise, whilst in port, we were watching a bird below our balcony eating a few crumbs that were on top of the life boats below. It was making a fair amount of loud bird-noise. So I videoed it on my camera.

 

At night, when we were in the middle of nowhere, we were sitting on our balcony (about 11 in the evening, so it was pitch black). I played the video back but Mrs Toad did not know this. She looked round the balcony and said "that bird's a long way out".

 

I nearly fell off the balcony !

[balf]

On a recent cruise, whilst in port, we were watching a bird below our balcony eating a few crumbs that were on top of the life boats below. It was making a fair amount of loud bird-noise. So I videoed it on my camera.

 

 

 

At night, when we were in the middle of nowhere, we were sitting on our balcony (about 11 in the evening, so it was pitch black). I played the video back but Mrs Toad did not know this. She looked round the balcony and said "that bird's a long way out".

 

 

 

I nearly fell off the balcony !

 

 

What I want to know is which messy passenger dropped the crumbs.

 

David.

[ToadOfToadHall]

What I want to know is which messy passenger dropped the crumbs.

 

David.

 

I think people were throwing the odd bit of bread, biscuit etc for it. It was hoovering it all up !

[robbie_3]

If it's any help, I can explain what happened to a petrel we noticed far from shore on board our South American cruise. We were told that as the bird lived mainly on the ocean its legs were not designed to walk, so it could not easily take back off after landing on the ship. It didn't appear injured so we waited until the next day and launched it off the ship into the wind and after an initial dip it seemed to fly off quite happily.