Blog » Birdwatching http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog Women cruisers share their experiences, info and news Mon, 23 Oct 2017 21:55:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.41 Birding Aboard “SeaBC” has sailors reporting unusual birds http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2015/10/birding-aboard-sailors-reporting-unusual-birds/ http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2015/10/birding-aboard-sailors-reporting-unusual-birds/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:48:00 +0000 http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/?p=9202 In the Women and Cruising blog series “Take Your Passion Cruising” I wrote about my passion: birds.

When you’re cruising, you’re immersed in nature, and many of us enjoy watching the birds while underway or at anchor. But as a boater you’re also in a unique position to contribute to citizen science simply ...Read more]]> In the Women and Cruising blog series “Take Your Passion Cruising” I wrote about my passion: birds.

When you’re cruising, you’re immersed in nature, and many of us enjoy watching the birds while underway or at anchor. But as a boater you’re also in a unique position to contribute to citizen science simply by taking photos of the birds you see on passage and in remote anchorages.

Tropicbirds are commonly reported to the Birding Aboard project, perhaps because they are so elegant and have a habit of circling the mast.
Photo ©Ellen Massey Leonard.

Because there is so little coverage of these areas, the odds are high for a “birder aboard” to contribute notable sightings that help scientists and conservations map bird distribution and abundance.

Here are a few examples of how cruisers can be “the eyes on the water” for birds:

* Sailing vessel s/v Aventura, with the Blue Planet Odyssey through the Northwest Passage, photographed a rare white morph Gyrfalcon cliff-nesting on an island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Their sighting adds to a lone 1999 historical report of a Gyrfalcon at the same location.

A rare white Gyrfalcon spotted among the cliffs and icebergs
of the Northwest Passage. Photo ©Doina Cornell.

* A 24-year-old who crossed the Atlantic with his father as part of the Atlantic Odyssey fleet, captured stunning photographs of a Trindade Petrel about 1,000 miles east of Martinique. A Trindade Petrel also was reported independently by Dorothy Wadlow on s/v Joyant about 900 miles east of Antigua. Trindade Petrel is a recently split species, considered vulnerable with uncertain global population and range.

A striking capture of a fast-flying ocean bird, a Trindade Petrel at home a thousand miles from shore. Photo ©Michael Sammer.

* Two homeschooled children, ages 10 and 11, logged all the birds they saw during their two-week transatlantic, scoring a Red-billed Tropicbird and Masked Booby closer to Cape Verdes than their expected stronghold in the Caribbean.

* In that same fleet, s/v Gemm and s/v Fleur de Sel documented flocks of Cattle Egrets in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, over a thousand miles from Africa or South America. The Cattle Egret has had one of the most wide-reaching and rapid expansions from its native range in Africa, spreading northward through South and North America since first sighted in Guiana in 1877. They are presumed to have flown across the Atlantic Ocean, given that immature Cattle Egrets will disperse up to 3,100 miles from their breeding area. So Lanzarote to Martinique (the Atlantic Odyssey’s passage) is just a jump across the pond!

* Circumnavigator Ellen Massey Leonard collected photos from her and her husband’s round-the-world passage on 38-foot s/v Heretic, contributing noon positions for notable sightings such as Cape Petrel further north than expected in the Indian Ocean, a Brown Noddy hitchhiker off the South African coast, and a Pomarine Jaeger near St. Paul Rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean.

A Brown Noddy claims a radome as its perch halfway between Ascension Island and Barbados. Photo ©Ellen Massey Leonard

* Birding Aboard Advisor and U.K. marine conservationist Colin Speedie on s/v Pelerin sailed through the balmy Lesser Antilles, only to spot several notable birds common to him from his northern home port! These included Great Skua, Pomarine and Parasitic Jaeger, and Cory’s Shearwater.

There were also many reports of hitchhiking land birds, such as Bobolink, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Barn Swallow, Mangrove Swallow, Caribbean Martin, Northern Flicker, and Blackpoll Warbler. These sightings reinforce recent tracking evidence that tiny songbirds are able to migrate long distances over the ocean and are not all “storm waifs.”

A tiny Blackpoll Warbler, a migrant between Canada and South America, rests in the cockpit of s/v Cinderella about 20 miles off the Florida coast.
Photo ©Jaye Lunsford.

Going forward, the project is anticipating exciting reports from Blue Planet Odyssey vessels sailing to Tokelau and Vanuatu, another season of attempts through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, a sailboat cruising the Scandinavian Arctic, and OceansWatch Donna Lange’s solo circumnavigation. And we hope for even more sightings from coastal and offshore cruisers like you!

 The “SeaBC” Sea Bird Count is:

  • A Clean Wake Project of the Seven Seas Cruising Association
  • An Environmental Programme of the Ocean Cruising Club
  • A Project of the Blue Planet Odyssey

For more information on how to participate, visit www.birdingaboard.org or the Birding Aboard Facebook group.

About Diana Doyle

Diana Doyle and her husband Mark write the Intracoastal Waterway cruising guide series, On the Water ChartGuides. They work- and live-aboard their PDQ catamaran Semi-Local.

Diana holds a 50-ton USCG Master’s License, but she especially loves launching her onboard kayak since it gets her closest to the wildlife.

She also writes for birding magazines and is currently the Tools of the Trade Editor for American Birding Association’s Birding magazine.

More from this website
]]> http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2015/10/birding-aboard-sailors-reporting-unusual-birds/feed/ 0 Women cruisers organize seabird citizen science project http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2012/04/diana-doyle-women-cruisers-organize-seabird-citizen-science-project/ http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2012/04/diana-doyle-women-cruisers-organize-seabird-citizen-science-project/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:50:27 +0000 http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/?p=6097 Read more]]> Diana Doyle spotting wildlife in a quiet South Carolina saltmarsh anchorage. Diana Doyle spotting wildlife in a quiet South Carolina saltmarsh anchorage.

A year ago, I wrote about “Birding Aboard” for Women and Cruising‘s series, Take Your Passion Cruising.

It turned out I was not alone in my passion for observing and enjoying birds while cruising.

Thanks to the phenomenal network of Women and Cruising, I connected to several other dedicated “birders-aboard,” including

  • Beth Leonard
    on s/v Hawk,
  • Brenda Free
    on s/v Willow,
  • Devi Sharp
    on s/v Arctic Tern,
  • Jeanne Socrates
    on s/v Nereida,
  • Katharine Lowrie
    on s/v Lista Light,
  • Wendy Clarke
    on s/v Osprey,
  • Yvonne Katchor on s/v Australia 31,
  • and Dorothy Wadlow on s/v Joyant.

Together we organized the first worldwide “SeaBC” SeaBird Count, where cruisers tally and submit their ocean and coastal bird sightings to eBird‘s online database. These sightings become a resource for scientists and provide much-needed data on seabird abundance and distribution.

Participation spanned over 100 degrees of latitude — from the Gulf of Maine at North 48º to South 58º on Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. But most counts were from more temperate latitudes, such as the islands off Africa, Chile’s Golfo de Penas, and the Caribbean.

And this year’s inaugural SeaBC was promoted by three long-distance cruising rallies: the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, Baja Ha-Ha, and Caribbean 1500.

Two black-brow albatross that landed by S/V LISTA LIGHT on passage from Falklands to Uruguay (Photo by Katharine Lowrie)
Two Black-browed Albatross that landed by S/V LISTA LIGHT on passage from Falklands to Uruguay (Photo by Katharine Lowrie)

But this post is not only about the SeaBC event, it’s about how this event illustrates the passion and commitment many women aboard have for the natural world.

Women aboard boats value nature. Of course men love nature also. But I’d venture that many women who thrive long-term aboard a cruising boat really love nature. The cruising lifestyle connects them with nature in a way that a climate-controlled condominium never can. And they love their boat, in part, because it’s their magic carpet to an endless supply of captivating new natural observations with each change of latitude.

Devi Sharp shares her knowledge during a cruiser raft-up in Venezuela. (Photo by Charles Shipley)
Devi Sharp shares her knowledge during a cruiser raft-up in Venezuela.
(Photo by Charles Shipley)

Women also embrace volunteerism. We can’t change generations of cultural imprinting! And the SeaBC taps into our enthusiasm for contributing in a way that is compatible with the cruising lifestyle. As volunteerism adapts to technology, citizen science takes environmental projects to the Internet. You may sometimes feel like a floating island, but you can still participate in your areas of interest by collecting and photographing geo-referenced data and uploading it to citizen science projects.

So the important role of women in launching this inaugural event isn’t just a coincidence.

Thank you Women and Cruising!

How You Can Help…
  • Join Facebook.com/Birding.Aboard, where you can share sightings, get ID help, and see news about next year’s SeaBC.
  • On your next coastal or offshore passage, take digital photos of seabirds and report your sightings to www.eBird.org.
  • If you’re not a birdwatcher, no problem—you can make an important contribution by reporting hourly stretches of “zero sightings.” Scientists and conservationists need to know where the birds are—and are not.
  • Volunteer to print and post a color PDF flyer at marinas you visit.
    The SeaBC Sea Bird Count project needs help getting posters disseminated to marinas and yacht clubs worldwide. If every Women and Cruising reader would take a few minutes to print a downloadable poster, then post it at their next marina port-of-call, imagine the reach! The one-page poster, printable on standard-size paper, is available for download here.
  • Know a second language? We need help translating our one-page tally sheet to French, Spanish, German, …

On the Water ChartGuides

About Diana Doyle

Diana Doyle and her husband Mark write the cruising guide and electronic charting series, Managing the Waterway—now known as On the Water ChartGuides to reflect their full-time surveying and cruising status.

Diana holds a 50-ton USCG Master’s License and is the “Tools of the Trade” Department Editor for American Birding Association‘s Birding magazine (www.aba.org).

Read also on this website
More information (external links)

Do you agree with Diana that many women who thrive long-term aboard a cruising boat really love nature? How important is that aspect of cruising for you?

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

]]> http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2012/04/diana-doyle-women-cruisers-organize-seabird-citizen-science-project/feed/ 2 Diana Doyle enjoys “birding aboard” as she writes cruising guides http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2011/01/diana-doyle-enjoys-birding-aboard-as-she-writes-cruising-guides/ http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2011/01/diana-doyle-enjoys-birding-aboard-as-she-writes-cruising-guides/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:40:28 +0000 http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/?p=3865

When my husband Mark and I started writing cruising guides,

we called them “enriched” guides because we wanted to include more than just the “mileposts and signposts” of transiting from one port to another.

When we cruised, we most enjoyed the learning experiences along the way. Although we were busy piloting, we were curious about the stories ...Read more]]> On watch

When my husband Mark and I started writing cruising guides,

we called them “enriched” guides because we wanted to include more than just the “mileposts and signposts” of transiting from one port to another.

When we cruised, we most enjoyed the learning experiences along the way. Although we were busy piloting, we were curious about the stories behind the island’s names, the birds and plants we were seeing, and the local history. But the existing guides didn’t fill in enough details. And I couldn’t tote along enough field guides, nature books, and regional history reading to cover the miles!

Interpretive vignette from “Managing the Waterway” (Mule Key to Loggerhead Key)

So when we started our series, although they are first and foremost navigation books, we decided to include what we called “interpretive vignettes”: short but detailed background reading on the sights, sounds, and stories along the way.

  • What marine animal makes that crackling noise under the hull at night?
  • What causes bioluminescence?
  • How can a large pelican hit the water at such high speeds?
  • How far can a flying fish fly?

Our cruising guides were a perfect business outlet for our mutual passions: Mark’s passions for computers, photography, design, and boats; and my passions for the outdoors, nature, writing, and research.

Cruising is like living an eco-tour.

When you cruise, nature is all around you. Although I try to balance the vignettes to include history, geography, geology, archaeology, and so on, my favorite vignettes to write are nature-based. I’m an avid (Mark says obsessive) bird-watcher (now called a “birder”), but I’m particularly interested in birds in their larger ecological context, which means plants, insects, climate, etc.

To help me write the vignettes, sometimes I think of myself as a guide on an eco-tour, interpreting all the amazing natural sights along a particular waterway or in an anchorage.

Atlantic Puffin
Atlantic Puffin

When you live aboard a boat, natural phenomena that other people pay to experience with a nature tour are regular daily sightings. Destinations that folks go on birding trips become your home for days or weeks!

In the Dry Tortugas, we anchored for days surrounded by the racket of thousands of sooty terns and brown noddies. They were our all-day companions. Most birders have to take a ferry out to the island and only spend a few hours before being herded back aboard for the return trip.

When we sailed the coast of Maine, we charted our course along Eastern Egg Rock to experience the successful reintroduction of an Atlantic Puffin colony. We had front row seats as puffins commuted back and forth with beak-fulls of tiny fish.

I was reminded of the unique vantage point of the cruising lifestyle when I read Return of the Osprey, by David Gessner. The author fervently wished to see an osprey haul a fish out of the water in its talons. I can’t even count how many times I’ve witnessed this event from our boat at anchor. Wildlife, doing their daily chores, are your neighbors when you live aboard.

But I want to do more than just “watch birds.”

On land, I love participating in projects that aid bird conservation. There are countless opportunities for this: Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs), Important Bird Area (IBA) surveys, or the Breeding Bird Atlas.

But what about when I’m birding aboard? Although I love watching birds, and searching for new birds, it’s not enough. Writing our cruising guides helps scratch that itch by letting me share my knowledge about common bird species. I also write articles on more advanced birding for nature magazines.

Now I’m ready to start my next project: a “CBC at Sea.”

As I brainstormed how I could bring my passion for bird conservation onto a moving vessel, I came up with the idea of a “CBC at Sea.”

CBC at Sea:

A call to those who spend time at sea to establish a worldwide annual bird count and contribute their ocean sightings to a citizen-science database for the study and conservation of pelagic species.

The cruising community is a huge untapped resource for citizen science. We are tuned in with our environment, educated, and interested in the marine world. We explore the less-traveled areas. And there are literally thousands of us out there!

Bridled Tern
Bridled Tern

Remember all the amazing bird sightings you’ve experienced at sea? The tropic bird colony along a rocky cliff? A seabird that followed your stern wake? The tired songbird that landed on your gunwale? The birds seen as you dinghied to a little island off your anchorage?

If you’re on the water and interested in nature, then you can really help.

Your sightings matter since there aren’t too many scientists who have the time and money to be where you are! Citizen science is the new thing in this massively-connected digital world. Research and conservation databases need reports from those of us who live unconventional lifestyles in unconventional places (admit it, live-aboard cruising is highly unconventional!)

It’s fine if you’re not a bird-whiz. We need to start somewhere and, just like land birding over the decades, knowledge will come in time. But we need to start getting the data and spreading awareness sooner than later! For example, when the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, so little was known about seabirds on the Gulf of Mexico that the early spill data basically had to function as baseline information.

The initial idea is to have boaters from around the world record their local bird observations on a one-day count. Observations would be submitted to a central database, such as Cornell University’s eBird.

If you’re home-schooling, this is a perfect project to teach children about ornithology, marine biology, data-gathering and recording, citizen science, and seabird conservation. There remain so many unanswered questions about ocean birds, such as where some species breed or winter. Your child can help answer these puzzles!
Bahama Bank

If you’re interested in participating or staying updated about the CBC at Sea, send me an email at diana@managingthewaterway.com. I’ll send information as the project develops.

Get Involved in Seabird Citizen Science!

Even if you don’t consider yourself a birder, here are some tips to help you or your home-schooled child identify what you see.

  1. Purchase a field guide for your area. Women and Cruising’s website includes many excellent regional suggestions.
  2. Take notes or draw sketches of what you see. First look and record; identification can come later.
  3. Ask locals. Their knowledge of nature usually far surpasses what’s available in field guides or even web searches.
  4. Jot down what locals call a bird. Do they call it a “dry land booby” or a “diablotin”? That’s a black-capped petrel. Many regional field guides include local names.
  5. Submit your sightings to Cornell’s eBird database so it can be used to help bird conservation and study trends (www.ebird.com). This is a great activity for home-schoolers.
About Diana Doyle

The Doyles in TortugasDiana Doyle and her husband Mark write the cruising guide and electronic charting series, Managing the Waterway. They wrote their first two guides, covering the Intracoastal Waterway and Florida Keys, while cruising on a PDQ catamaran and home-schooling their son.

Diana began birding at age seven, when her third grade visiting teacher, a “twitcher” (compulsive bird-lister) from the U.K., ignored the state-mandated curriculum and took his students birding all day—resulting in an entire class in remedial summer school. She recovered from that early academic setback to earn a Ph.D. from Yale and is still birding forty years later. A former political science professor with a lifelong interest in environmental conservation, she also holds a 50-ton USCG Master’s License.

An Illustrated Cruising Guide to the Great Loop Inland Waterway: Chicago to MobileMark and Diana’s latest guide is An Illustrated Cruising Guide to the Great Loop Inland Waterway: Chicago to Mobile. You can see details on all their titles, see Mark’s photos, download additional cruising guide resources, and get the latest guide updates at their website: www.managingthewaterway.com.

Read also on this website
More information (external links)

Has cruising given you a unique opportunity to explore YOUR passions?

Do you have stories to share about how cruising has brought you up close to nature?

Do you want to get involved with the Christmas Bird Count at Sea?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

]]> http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2011/01/diana-doyle-enjoys-birding-aboard-as-she-writes-cruising-guides/feed/ 4 Katharine Lowrie sets sail to protect wildlife http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/11/katharine-lowrie-sets-sail-in-search-of-wildlife/ http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/11/katharine-lowrie-sets-sail-in-search-of-wildlife/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:06:06 +0000 http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/11/katharine-lowrie-sets-sail-in-search-of-wildlife/ Read more]]>

If by chance you are in Grenada as you read this, you can meet Kath and attend a presentation on Kath and David’s seabird survey on December 2. Details below.

Kath LowrieLand Meets Sea

I’m not sure that my experience of cruising is altogether normal… I dumped my maiden name, Land and its beguiling earthly forms, abandoned my job surveying wildlife and plunged into an alien world of motion and water.

David and I bowled off from the shores of Devon, England, in our ancient sailing boat who, in her heyday, had been much more contented transporting a couple of tonnes of fish about than two fresh-faced explorers and their fellow friends.

The thing was that we wanted to work overseas in ecology.

Lista Light, our 75 year old, wooden sailing boatLista Light, our 75 year old, wooden sailing boat, seemed the perfect carbon neutral mode to transport us on our way.

So we filled her fishy voids with oranges and lemons, strapped a rowing machine to her cabin top with ideas of harnessing our energy and keeping fit, procured Ampair’s wind turbine-come wake turbine, added to our clutch of solar panels and surged off.

Surge was one way of putting it! On our first outing from her sleepy resting place in the Bristol canal, on a freezing spring day, we ran into gale force 9 winds and tore Lista’s head and main sail. I was sick as a dog, lying prostrate on the pilot berth being occasionally fed marmite and cheese sandwiches. “Baptism in freezing cold waves and wind” came to mind, but Lista was staunch, she just rocked her ample hips from side to side and I felt cocooned in her great wooden frame.

Kath at the helm, COLD! So we gradually made our way south accompanied by rafts of puffins and guillemots and pods of leaping dolphins and of course night sails.

I shall never forget the first time I sat up on deck under an hallow of stars manning the helm alone,

with the wind nudging Lista’s beam and the waves rushing past. It was the most magical experience, to feel natural forces lift us up and push us forward effortlessly.

Then, of course, reality would hit, on this instance after a dreamy crossing of the Biscay, replete with a pair of the world’s second largest whales, fin whales, who sidled close by our side, which I had to restrain myself from joining. As we neared the safety of Spanish shores, we found ourselves skewered down on all sides by lightning and thunder. This was followed swiftly by our finding ourselves in a two-way motorway of tankers, emerging out of rain clusters on the radar screen, metres from our bow.

But the point of sailing is the adventure, the uncertainty as to what lies over the next frothing wave.

Katharine Lowrie surveying for breeding seabirds in the Grenadines

If you yearn for wildlife as I do, then it supplies encounters with the oddest of creatures from a minke whale that swam at our side for over five days, to the sparkling phosphorescence that shoots from our wake or to my first scaly sight of a flying fish, hurtling into my eye at night!

We were aiming for South America, but ended up in the Caribbean working with a nature conservation charity…

…Environmental Protection In the Caribbean (EPIC). Now, as a friend has pointed out, we are making a survey of the worst anchorages of the Caribbean as we research seabirds in their wave-battered homes far from people and their predators.

By October 2010 we intend to have produced the first comprehensive breeding seabird atlas of the Lesser Antilles.

Without a seabird census, governments cannot predict how their numbers are doing and put in place the necessary conservation measures.

GRE-Battowia Central Gut_26Seabirds indicate the health of our oceans, they direct fishermen to shoals and remove the weak and diseased fish from the food chain. They are at every level of the food web, balancing and checking the marine world. They are inextricably linked to sailing folklore, guiding sailors to land… so they’re not just pretty to look at.

And so we find ourselves repairing Lista Light’s aching bones in Grenada and seeking a grant to fund a small motorized tender that will allow us to reach the seabird islands in greater safety than last year.

Because, manoeuvring our 35 tonne boat within metres of unchartered coastlines and anchoring by wind-torn islands produced: one grounding, a windlass torn from the deck, two surveyors fighting dangerous currents and countless other near misses… so the hunt is on!

It is nearly a year and half since David and I left the UK and I started sailing.

Kath LowrieSailing has unlocked a world of beauty, of wildlife, exotic shores and velvet nights.

We have experienced nature in calm and rage, without a whiff of jet lag or the misery of long airport queues. We have nosed into sleepy coves alone and carried our world of books and pointless frippery along.

Sailing allows us a portal into sustainability

with solar, wind or wake energy powering our needs, local fruit and veg filling the holds, rain water harvested and organic waste fed to the fish.

There is more on the list, such as installing a holding tank, because the longer I spend in this watery world we all inhabit, the more I need to have as little impact upon it as possible. Long may the lobsters stare at us from their dark coral home and the mangrove roots march seaward.

Want to learn more?

Seabird Presentation in Grenada -  December 2, 2009:

Katharine and David will be giving a free presentation on seabirds – including their findings from the first comprehensive seabird survey of the Lesser Antilles to date.

The talk and slide show will also include why seabirds are important, their ecology, a bit of id and a short video on the project.

Location: Le Phare Bleu, near Petit Calivigny, South Grenada:  contact@lepharebleu.com (+1 473) 444 2400 www.lepharebleu.com

Date/time: Wednesday 2 December 2009, 4.30pm at the pool-side bar.

Le Phare Bleu should be organising transport from Grenada Yacht Club, etc. Please contact them for information.

The talk should only last an hour, including questions. Le Phare Bleu has a Friendship Season with special dining offers on the night if you are interested. So if you would like to find out more about seabirds in the Caribbean please do come along.

Help Katharine and David fund their small survey tender

SAB_NorthCoast_2If you have any ideas of how Katharine and David might fund a small (~ 14 foot) survey boat, please contact Katharine at landy@listalight.co.uk.

Visit Katharine and David’s website

… for the dates of their 2010 presentations on the EPIC project and seabird ecology on various islands in the Lesser Antilles as they survey northwards in 2010: www.listalight.co.uk

… for more information on the EPIC Seabird Survey that they are working on: http://www.listalight.co.uk/webpages/EPICProjectSummary.htm

… to learn more about the Lesser Antilles Seabird Species: http://www.listalight.co.uk/webpages/seabirdspecies.htm

Submit YOUR own bird records

Central data base for the conservation of birds, where you can submit your bird records: www.worldbirds.org

Watch Kath’s YouTube video
Related articles:

- Read how other women Take Their Passion Cruising:

- Old Sailboat given New Life ~ Lista Light on a Mission to Protect Seabirds (from the Daily Herald website – St Marteen)

What’s YOUR passion? Have you taken it cruising?
Let us know. Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

]]> http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/11/katharine-lowrie-sets-sail-in-search-of-wildlife/feed/ 0 Take Your Passion Cruising: Birdwatching http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/06/take-your-passion-cruising-birdwatching/ http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/06/take-your-passion-cruising-birdwatching/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:10:13 +0000 http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2009/06/take-your-passion-cruising-birdwatching/ Read more]]>

I have been reading Around The Next Bend, written by Australian cruiser Bernie Katchor. The book tells the story of Yvonne and Bernie’s seven-month journey along the rivers of Guyana and Venezuela aboard their sailboat Australia 31. It’s a fascinating read of travels in an area few cruisers have visited.

Meeting people as warm and adventurous as Yvonne and Bernie is one of the gifts of cruising. I have shared an anchorage with them a number of times, and joined them on several hikes in search of birds.

Yvonne is a great example of how pursuing your passion (in her case, birdwatching) can add depth to your cruising. It gives you a reason to seek out new places and people, and connects you to people who share your interests.

Below, taken from Around The Next Bend, Bernie writes about their birdwatching:

Yvonne looking for grass finches“Watching and identifying birds and animals is a passion, especially with Yvonne. She has documented the names of over 2500 bird species and continues to be just as excited when she positively identifies one she has never seen as she was twenty years ago when we started a hobby that requires binoculars only. …

“We often take people from other boats bird watching and because of Yvonne’s contagious enthusiasm; we have created birdwatchers all over the world who email us to tell us what new bird they have just seen. It gives us great pleasure that these people are now addicted to birds. …

Yvonne: Is it a duck?“The Indians of South America not only have excellent eyesight but also are at one with nature. They see a movement in a windswept tree that is different and know at one it is the movement of a bird. We have not the ability to recognize this difference. These people love to accompany us even though they do not understand why we only look at birds and do not eat them. …

Bernie and Yvonne out looking for birds Our guidebook was Where to Watch Birds in South America. This book brought us to interesting places where the first question from the locals was ‘Why are you here? Tourists don’t come here.’

We explain our mission and show a picture of the bird we really hope to see in the area. Immediately we have a mentor who searches the village for someone who knows and we are off on a hike for a day or two to find that bird. Birding is a wonderful way to get to know a country and its people.”

Here are a few of Yvonne’s birds:

Guyanese cock of the rock

pygmy owl

red flamingo

For more info on Yvonne and Bernie (including more bird and cruising photos):
Related articles

What’s YOUR passion? Have you taken it cruising?
Let us know. Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

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