flock of birds following Alaska cruise ship at night (1 Viewer)

[tmomany2]

On August 15th at 3AM in the morning on the last day of our Alaskan cruise, the ship was approaching Seward Alaska, but still out in the Pacific. I woke up and saw movement outside. I went out on the balcony and saw hundreds of birds flying with the ship. It was very dark, so I couldn't see any color, and I had nothing to accurately judge size, although the birds were not large. I have video, but you can't see much because it is so dark. The sound they made was a squawking sea bird like sound, but not loud. Occasionally they would fly close to the ship's lights and they looked like their undersides were light colored. Based on the way they were flying I'd have assumed they were eating bugs, as they would occasionally change direction and drive - although not near or into the water. Yet, I didn't see any bugs. And for the most part they were just flying along with the ship. A friend on the other side of the ship also woke up and saw the same thing, so they were on both sides, and there were hundreds of them. I'd love to know what these birds were. A huge flock of birds following an Alaska cruise ship, out at sea, in the middle of the night seems like a very odd behavior for birds, and therefore something someone should have documented somewhere. If anyone has any suggestions for what these birds might have been I'd be very happy to hear them!

 

[MSA]

Just a guess really, but would Kittiwakes be a possibility? The ship could have passed through a flock.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Gulls are often active at night, in dock areas where there is night lighting, they'll be active all night.


Andy

 

[tmomany2]

No, these were definitely smaller than Kittiwakes, we saw plenty of those on the cruise during the day. They also didn't have long wings like gulls, and flapped very fast - which I should have mentioned in the first post. I was thinking more along the lines of Auks or Murres but I can't find anything about them traveling in large flocks or at night.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I remember large flocks of murres moving around dusk in the Homer area so that's what jumps to mind for me.

 

[Jos Stratford]

I have video, but you can't see much because it is so dark.

It might be enough for some to identify ...probably worth linking?

 

[tmomany2]

audio from video

It might be enough for some to identify ...probably worth linking?

So I didn't realize I could attach video, and unfortunately I'm not sure if the video came though when I converted it to this file format. I can't view it, but the sight wouldn't let me upload an MOV or MP4 or MPG format. But the sound alone might still help someone.