Snip
Nice post. We were offshore the Cal/Mex coast (just north of San
Diego as I recall) a few years ago, heading south about 120nm
offshore when a small non-sea bird landed on the deck. It looked like
a sparrow. It was clearly tired, and I'm thinking glad for the
respite.

It stayed with us for a couple of days, and would take neither water
nor food. You couldn't pick it up, but it would hop within a 1/2
foot, and at one point landed on someone's hat while she was wearing
it and stayed put for a tour of the above-decks. Finally, mid-day on
the third day, it took flight headed north. This was October.

On a lighter note, a few years back we were heading north in the Irish Sea
whan a ringed racing pidgeon landed on deck, obviously tired, but not
exactly exhausted.

We fed him and allowed him to rest for about 3 hours, and finally he took
off, headed south!

Are these birds so dim that they don't know to hitch a lift on a boat that
is headed in the direction of "home"?

He added a good 20 miles of distance to his race by taking a rest!

Took a note of his ring number, but decided not to contact his owner as
there may have been some retribution against him by said owner.

Dennis.