On Dec 28, 8:16 am, "Capt. JG" wrote:
"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
....
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. ...

We get the occasional bird catching a ride when we're on passage.
Usually boobies. But the most amazing bird visit was from a sparrow.
As I recall we were about the longitude of the cooks and still down
around 37-38S sailing east when this tiny bit of fuzz dropped by. It
was a sparrow of a type that we see in New Zealand all the time --
they flit around in massive flocks eating berries and making
unreasonably large sticky black turds that can burn the paint right
off of the decks. I'm told they are called "welcome sparrows" though
to me birds mostly fit into the categories of "birds to eat" or "birds
to look at", so I wouldn't swear to the id. I'm also told that they
make the journey from New Zealand to Alaska(?) every year. This seems
wildly unlikely to me since they are about as big as a puff of
milkweed and obviously can't alight on the sea. Nevertheless, this
little creature nestled down on our deck for a day very far from the
nearest land in somewhat unpleasant weather and then headed off to
parts north on his own... Wonderful indeed.

-- Tom.