Western Pacific Odyssey 2008....Japanese waters and North Pacific Albatross's......
John Brodie-Good
The vessel is now in her last two days sailing from this year's final
destination but in the meantime our revised plans came up trumps off
the coast of Torishima Island...
30th April
Chi-Chi-Jima (Bonin Islands), Japan
The vessel arrived and cleared customs and immigration. Not planned to
be much of a birding stop, a local park produced Brown-eared Bulbuls,
Japanese Bush-Warblers and White-Eyes plus Blue Rock-Thrush. Again, no
passerine migrants!
Back at sea in the afternoon, the ship sailed north up the west coast
of the main island. Tristram’s Storm-Petrels finally appeared, with
good numbers recorded by the end of the day. A rather expensive bottle
of champers was drunk by a gentleman resident on the Isles of Scilly
apparently, his last storm-petrel under the belt! More excitingly for
WildWings, Laysan Albatross finally joined the voyage list, having not
been seen in 2007 or 2005, a single bird logged. Black-footed
Albatross numbers built up as the day went on too, other seabirds
included Bonin Petrels, Wedge-tailed and Short-tailed Shearwaters ,
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel but no Matsudaira’s today.
1st May
At sea off Torishima Island, Japan
Chris was just making an announcement from the bridge, as the island
finally started coming into view through the mist and murk when an
adult Short-tailed Albatross flew across in front of the bows! Some
later chumming, about 3 nautical miles off the island produced about
30 birds, in all plumages, coming in close, giving the photographers
aboard a field day! The ship went as close as a mile from the island
early in the afternoon but it was deemed not worth trying a Zodiac
cruise. More chumming brought in a few more Short-Tailed and Black-
footed Alberts, but a poor performance compared to the morning’s show.
Other tubenoses included 3 more Laysans, Streaked, Flesh-footed, Wedge-
tailed and Short-tailed Shearwaters, Wilson’s, Matsudaira’s and
Tristram’s Storm-Petrels. The Save the Albatross auction onboard
before dinner raised a further US$1600 and most people then retired to
their cabins for the night with big smiles on their faces, yet again.
Cheers
John Brodie-Good