A Stowaway Red-necked Phalarope

The sunrise sail across Puget Sound was calm and mostly clear.  The trees hugging the Olympic Peninsula coastline and sheltering seaside mansions were the color of red wine on that early autumn morning I passed by.  I could just make out the peninsula's distant mountain peaks to the southwest as they caught the first rays of morning light.  As the Seattle skyline came into view the rising sun framed the iconic Space Needle, enveloped in a slight haze of distant wildfire smoke.

Throughout the Ruby Princess's sail into Seattle's Elliott Bay, my eyes were peeled for wildlife.  While orcas and humpback whales evaded me, several harbor seals and a diving pair of Western grebes appeared, joining the many sea gulls and cormorants crisscrossing the waterways.  However the bird that stood out the most was one I encountered just as we moored alongside our berth in Seattle, a city just starting to buzz with the noises of its Tuesday workday.  The animal wasn't a hundred feet off the side of the ship either, diving in the surf or flying overhead; it was stranded on the Ruby's Promenade Deck.

Somewhere and sometime overnight, as the Ruby Princess sailed from Astoria, Oregon to Washington State, leaving the mouth of the Columbia River and sailing north in the Pacific Ocean off the Evergreen State's coastline and into the Juan de Fuca Strait that separates Canada and the United States, a red-necked phalarope boarded the ship.  I've awoken on ships in the Caribbean Sea after they've passed between Cuba and Haiti to discover large, tropical moths that joined the vessel overnight, attracted to the many lights festooning the twenty decks.  Why wouldn't birds make the same decision?

The red-necked phalarope is a long-distance migrant, breeding in the Arctic and wintering in the tropical Pacific Ocean off of South America.  Many of the birds migrate southward along the coast, over open water, in the opposite direction that my ship was sailing.  This individual might have become confused or was distressed or even accidentally struck the ship and landed.  Or just like the Caribbean moth, it was attracted by the lights.

I discovered the phalarope at the rear of the ship, on the outside walkway on Deck 7, or the Promenade Deck.  It was alert and walking, cautiously letting me get close before it timidly waddled away.  It seemed to walk as normal as any other bird but it wasn't excitable like a wild animal.  In fact, it wouldn't fly away, a sure sign something was wrong with it. 

If I were home, in Phoenix, I'd know just who to call and where to bring the bird: Liberty Wildlife, an outstanding local rehabilitation service.  But I was in Seattle and on a cruise ship that strictly controlled disembarking and boarding, which meant one thing: I'd go to Security who were just the individuals to handle stowaways like this bird.  

I quickly found an officer as there was increasing commotion on deck related to the preparation of two gangways for fidgety passengers ready to sightsee in the Emerald City, as Seattle is known.  The epaulet-wearing official (I didn't count the stripes) listened sympathetically to my description of the bird, which I called a sandpiper, having at that point no idea what the robin-sized bird was.  She sympathized with my concern and told me she would alert the appropriate crew as there was a specific procedure for addressing wildlife encounters like mine.  

I didn't go back to see the phalarope again.  And I didn't encounter the helpful officer again to follow up; she was wearing a mask, how would I recognize her in a sea of faceless white shirts and black pants anyway?  Interestingly, the little seabird was also black and white, not red-necked at all.  The species sports that bright color for mating, losing it outside of the breeding season.  

Immature birds are also only black and white, which perhaps the stowaway was.  On its first migration, hundreds of miles into a journey thousands of miles long, it had its first ever mishap.  My fingers are crossed a rescue center in Seattle knew exactly what to do.

Red-necked phalarope on the Ruby Princess.

Red-necked phalarope on the Ruby Princess.

Red-necked phalarope on the Ruby Princess.

Red-necked phalarope on the Ruby Princess.