Pelagic Birding Trips with The Bird Guide, Inc.
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Your trip, step-by-step

Friends,

Whether you are ready for your first trip or are a veteran of many pelagic trips, one thing is true. The better prepared you are, the more you will enjoy your trip.

I have created this page as an outline, or checklist, if you will, of the major and minor steps that can lead to a satisfying trip.

When's the best time to take a trip? When can I find my target birds? What is a trip like? All the answers are here.

Enjoy your trip!

Greg Gillson


Step 1: Choose your trip type
Perpetua Bank: Trip description of our outstanding full-day trip
Virtual Perpetua Bank Pelagic Trip!: What is a pelagic trip like?
Shorebird Festival: Trip description and previous trip reports of this fun half-day fall trip

Step 2: Choose your trip date
Calendar: Schedule, price, availability
Abundance list: Semimonthly bar chart of seabird abundance
Annotated Checklist: Details on when to find your target birds
When is the best time to take a pelagic trip? Birds and sea conditions

Step 3: Reserve your spaces
Online reservation form: Including terms and conditions...
  • Payment details
  • Cancellation and refund policy
  • Waiver of liability
Step 4: Prepare for your trip
Perpetua Bank preparation material: What to bring and wear, sea sickness prevention, motels, map to charter
Oregon Shorebird Festival preparation material: What to bring and wear, sea sickness prevention, motels, map to charter

Your guides: Learn a bit about your guides

Virtual Perpetua Bank Pelagic Trip!: What is a pelagic trip like?

Abundance list: Study the expected birds and know them well
Nearshore birds: Seasonal list of waterbirds expected in the bay and near shore
Annotated Checklist: Details on when to find your target birds
Rare seabirds of Oregon and the West Coast
Rare seabirds seen on Bird Guide Pelagic Trips

Field Separation of Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters off the West Coast of North America Birding Vol 40, No 2, 2008.
Separation of Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters
Gull identification in the Pacific Northwest Aging and identifying the regular large gulls in the Northwest.
At a distance: Northern Fulmars in flight

Perpetua Bank Archive: Results and highlights of every trip, many with photos
Archive of Special Newport, Oregon trips to 20 miles off Newport
Archive of miscellaneous West Coast pelagic trips

Books
  • Seabirds: an identification guide, 1983, Peter Harrison
  • Gulls: a guide to identification, second edition, 1986, Peter J. Grant
  • Seabirds of the World: a photographic guide, 1987, Peter Harrison
  • Ocean Birds of the Nearshore Pacific, 1990, Rich Stallcup
  • Skuas and Jaegers, 1997, Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson
  • Seabirds of the World: the complete reference, 1997, Jim Enticott and David Tipling
  • Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters of the World, 2007, Derek Onley and Paul Scoffield
Links to other pelagic trip providers
Westport Seabirds Washington State
Shearwater Journeys California
Monterey Seabirds California
Condor Cruises Santa Barbara, California
SoCal Pelagic Birding San Diego, California
Searcher Multi-day trips from San Diego, California
Norton of Jonesport Puffin tours of Machias Seal Island in Maine
New England Seabirds
Brian Patteson, Inc. Virginia and North Carolina
Louisiana Ornithological Society
Tony Palliser's Pelagic Page Australia
Oceanwings New Zealand
Zest for Birds South Africa
Capetown Pelagics South Africa


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Questions? Greg Gillson

The powers of flight of the albatrosses are universally recognized as little short of marvelous,
and it is an endless delight to watch them, particularly in a subsiding storm,
sailing on their great wings up one side, over, and down on the other side of a gigantic wave.

Jewett, Taylor, Shaw, and Aldrich
Birds of Washington State (1953)


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