Nine people will be on this trip, as of October 3, 2015.
Your PASSPORT is required to be with you: this is a 24-hour round-trip to Canada and back (Portland ME to Yarmouth NS and back to Portland).
Meet Here on or before 6pm on Saturday October 10th (you can click on this map to enlarge it, and then press ESC key to return)....
Meet here, inside the Nova Star terminal, a red brick building which says "Ocean Gateway" under its white clock...
You can click on the marine forecast to enlarge it, then press ESC key to return...
Likely seabirds are similar to those in our Sept 13 pelagic trip, plus a much higher probability of a skua, especially a Great Skua.
This HAS 2015 October 10-11 cross-GOM (Gulf Of Maine) pelagic ferry trip is accepting reservations. If you might be interested, please email to me ( robben99@gmail.com ) to register for this trip. You can check the Nova Star website for regular pricing (which varies by month and also depends upon cabin or other options you select) .....
Maine to Nova Scotia Ferry with service between Portland, ME and Yarmouth, NS | Nova Star Cruises
but we have a group arrangement/pricing, so be sure to email to me immediately for possible late registration.
Be aware that the top deck outside viewing area is quite exposed to the weather, and high (80feet above the water), so it is quite a different experience than your typical pelagic-bird-watching trip where you are much lower and closer to the water and the birds. One advantage of this is that you can see much farther out on the water than usual. Another is that you look down on many of the seabirds, so you get unusual views of them. And being on a large ship there is much more stability than on the usual pelagic trip, which many people will be happy about.
You should arrive in Portland, Maine by around 5:30pm October 10th to park your car ( Ocean Gateway Parking Garage is reliable, located at 167 Fore Street in Portland ME, 2 blocks from the ferry terminal -- and its automated gates will take credit cards as you exit the next day -- the total charge will be about $35 ), and then walk two blocks to the ferry dock (not later than 6:00pm, at Nova Star Cruises Portland Terminal.. ), where you need some time to present your passport (required) and get your ticket printed.
There is also an open lot which is less than a block from the ship, but it is sometimes full. Pricing there is $10/day, but it is never clear whether our trip exceeds that 24 hour limit enough for the police to give you a citation if you buy only one day, so you can plan on paying for two days ($20 in advance on your credit card).
If you do not have a passport (or passport card) which will be valid on October 10-11, get one now while there is still some lead time.
Think of this as a 24-hour round-trip. The ship boards around 630pm and departs Portland around 730pm, and will return here around 6pm the next day. After boarding the ship, most people put their baggage into their cabins, then go to the restaurant and eat dinner and socialize on the relaxing deck 7, then go to their very clean cabins on deck 8 and get a restful sleep in comfortable bunk beds. The ship travels to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia during the night, while you sleep, and returns to Portland the next day, when we will look for seabirds, whales, etc.
As of mid-2015 I am aware of three trips which have been "bird watched" & documented on this exact 210-mile route, and all three have had at least one Skua, so this will be our #1 Target Species. So, prior to this trip you may want to study Great Skua, South Polar Skua, and the somewhat similar looking dark morph Pomarine Jaeger.
If you want to know what we saw on our 2014 trip last October on this ship, just scroll down here to see that trip report for 2014 October 11-12 (or click on this link... 2014 Oct 11-12 GOM Marine & Seabird Survey), including, yes, several skuas.
Meanwhile here we are working with Iain Stenhouse (left), BRI and the First Mate (Domingo), to prepare for this October marine survey across the GOM, testing Iain's new marine software....
People seem to forget stuff to bring on this trip, so I am going to start a basic list here:
- Your PASSPORT, which must be valid on the two days of this trip.
- Your best BINOCULARS!!, which will be crucial since our observation deck is so high (80ft above water).
- Your WINTER clothes. It will probably be super-windy and rather cold (as it was last October).
- More to come, as I think of them.
- Not required, but highly recommended: the book.... by Noble Proctor and Patrick Lynch: "A Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife" A Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife: Marine Mammals, Seabirds, Fish, and Other Sea Life: Noble S. Proctor, Patrick J. Lynch
Kathy VanDerAue pointed out this interesting Nova Star report from Sept.20th....
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Subject: Yarmouth NS to Portland ME Sept 18
Date: Sun Sep 20 2015 19:31 pm
From: ravenwatcher AT gmail.com
Hello All,
Birded for about 6 hours with birds visible after the first hour since
coast was fogged in. So started at about 9:30.
We stopped at 3 PM counting.
We birded from the stern which was not ideal but as you can see from the
list we had lots of great views. We may have done better looking through
the windows in the front bar but would not have had the breadth of view and
would have missed most of the 11 whales that we saw.
Totals during watch:
1324 Greater Shearwater,
65 Northern Gannet,
30 Red-necked Phalarope,
14 Phalarope Sp.,
25 Great Black-backed Gull,
9 Pomarine Jaeger,
15 Jaeger Sp (most probably Pomarine),
9 Cory's Shearwater,
3 Great Skua,
3 Manx Shearwater,
3 Double-crested Cormorant,
1 Northern Fulmar,
1 Merlin,
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (adult),
1 Leach's Storm-petrel,
2 Storm Petrel sp,
At least 11 whales were seen most only by spouts. One probable Finback
(from spout ID) most others Humpback. Most distant. No other marine
mammals, Alcids, Terns, passerines or fish observed.
Great looks at one of the Great Skuas and several of the Pomarine Jaegers
as well as Lesser Black-backed Gull which followed the boat for some time.
Hope this is helpful to anyone considering the trip. I was prepared to be
disappointed due to limited deck access but it was not that much of a
problem. At one time I had in view 3 Jaegers on one side of the boat and 2
on the other. 3 were Pomerines and 2 possibly Parasitic.
Dan Nickerson
Freeport ME
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