Queenstown to Daunt Rock
1909.
Oct. 6 [October 6, 1909]
  Clear & cool with fresh westerly winds.
 The Ivernia entered Queenstown Harbor about 9 A.M.
& left it half an hour later. It was swarming with Gulls &
I saw a few Cormorants, also, perched on buoys, and I saw
flocks of what I took to be Skylarks, circling over the water.
After leaving the harbor our course lay nearly parallel to
the coast & at a distance of some four or five miles from
it, as far as Daunt Rock, a distance of about 150 miles.
It would be difficult to overestimate the number of birds
seen during this run. They were constantly in sight by
hundreds either flying about or resting on the water. Most
numerous of all were the Gulls. There, named in the order
of their relative abundance, were the Lesser Black-head, the
Herring, the Mew and the Lesser Black-back. All four
species, to the combined number of 100 or more, followed
the steamer ceaselessly until late in the day. Although
her speed was fully 16 miles an hour, and although there
was a head-wind of at least 20 miles an hour to be also
overcome, they kept up with us without the slightest
apparent effort, rarely flapping and for the most part
gliding on set and seemingly motionless wings for hundreds
of yards at a stretch and on a nearly horizontal plane
although they rose & fell a foot or two (rarely more than
that) from time to time. There were nearly always
at least a dozen or more floating over the deck not
more than fifteen feet above our heads. Keeping so nearly
the same position in relation to [?] [?] that as one
looked straight up at them, without at the same time
seeing the water [?] by, it was difficult to realize
that they were moving at all. In fact they looked