November 11

Weather: It was foggy today, but, contrary to expectation, the fog was not crippling for most of the count. We could see the red buoy (albeit not far beyond it) for most of the day, and we had a really fun, diverse Loon Hour! (Loon Hour is the 0700-0800 hour, named such because when the Pacifics start flying by the tens of thousands an hour, Loon Hour is almost always where it falls.) It was fairly calm at dawn and dusk, but wind at the count was moderate from the SW for most of the day. At the outer buoy it was blowing ENE at 6 knots at dawn, and by 1100 had switched to SE and built to 12 knots, switching to south but generally sustaining speed through dusk. Pressure at was was 30.08; at dusk it had dropped to 30.03.

Birds: We had our biggest (so far) Surf Scoter flight of the season yesterday: 3651! This puts us over the 10,000 threshold for this season. The flight was strongest from dawn through Loon Hour and again from 1400-1700. The fog kept afternoon flocks low, and it was awesome to see triple-digit scoter flocks piling, spilling, shapeshifting out at the fogline. We had 2 White-winged Scoters and a Black Scoter, as well as 71 Brant, which usually appear when it's foggy weather and stormy somewhere offshore.

We had a great murre and Rhinoceros Auklet flight from dawn-loon hour; daily tallies: 1490 Common Murre, 440 Rhinoceros Auklet, 2 Cassin's Auklet, 9 Ancient Murrelet.

Re: loons we had 64 Red-throats, 722 Pacifics (574 during Loon Hour--surely, a thousand-hour is on our near horizons!), and 20 Commons. The flight was low-altitude, and there was some movement on the outer line.

There were wonderful amounts of Northern Fulmars in the bay today; we tallied 146. Also 44 Sooty Shearwaters, 3 Pink-foots--our first in a few days--and a storm-petrel sp. that I think was a Fork-tailed. Many Red Phalaropes continue to raft up in these reaches of Monterey Bay--my conservative estimate of these rafts yesterday was 700 birds.

We had 3 Parasitic and 4 Pomarine Jaegers, a Black-legged Kittiwake, 635 Bonaparte's Gulls, and a marked influx of "different" gulls: all of a sudden Californias are a more prevalent part of the mix, and we are seeing more Glaucous-winged, Thayer's, and Short-billed.

Finally, there was a little Cedar Waxwing movement over the point today--just 32 individuals, but several different small flocks, and this movement took place over a few hours. One of the whalewatching boats saw a Short-eared Owl several miles out in the bay today...hoping we have one (or at least enough visibility to see one at the ranges that we do here haha) before too long.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist - https://ebird.org/tripreport/431723

2025 Pt. Pinos Seawatch - 10 Nov

Weather: Seawatch today was plagued by fog: from about 1000-dusk, there was perhaps one hour, cumulative, that the buoy was visible. This season has brought the most fog I've experienced at Seawatch, but so far that's my only qualm, weather or otherwise, for this season. We've already had so many great birds! The swell was minimal, and the wind was moderate SW at the point for most of the day. At the outer buoy, it was blowing from the NE at 6 knots at dawn and switched to 6 knots SSW at 1000, building to 12 knots S at 1300, but dropping a bit by sunset. Pressure at dawn was 30.14, and it stayed fairly stable over the course of the day.

When the fog was not prohibitive today, we had some fun birds: the top highlight was Seawatch's first TUFTED PUFFIN during this year's count period. (Kai and Karen had two on October 30...).

The scoter flight, given the fog, was pretty good: 1618 Surfs, and 2 Black. There were loads of Red Phalaropes resting and feeding on the waters around Pt. Pinos today--at least 300. I did my best to not double-count these on multiple hourly checklists, and the day's total was 478. Often, phalaropes and Bonaparte's Gulls are prominent on the same days at the Seawatch, and we had 1092 Bonaparte's today, including a very cool flock of ~150 that flew in a tight, surprisingly hard-to-detect bunch high in the fog. We also had our second Black-legged Kittiwake of the season.

On the alcid front, we had 34 Rhinoceros Auklets, 1 Cassin's Auklet, a Pigeon Guillemot, and 975 Common Murres.

Loons continue to be slow but steady--we had 172 Red-throats, 270 Pacifics, and 45 Commons today.

Today was our first day without a storm-petrel in nearly a week! (I'll blame the fog for that). We did have 47 Northern Fulmars, including more white birds (which nest further north) than I've been seeing so far this season. We also had 5 Sooty Shearwaters.

Jaegers continue to come through reliably--2 Parasitics and 3 Poms today.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/431328

November 9

Beginning at sunrise around 6:00 AM, the morning shift at the Point Pinos Seawatch included Catherine, Kai, and Bill to start off the day.  They had great views of a Leach's Storm-Petrel close-ish to land, spotted by Ed Schlabach at the 7:00 hour. The day started with clear skies and high numbers of loons and murres, but when the midday shift clocked in (Fred, Karen, and Amanda) the fog rolled in, masking the red buoy and the mountain range. Luckily the fog lifted and with the help of a local birding buddy, a Marbled Murrelet was spotted during the 1:00 PM checklist. Thanks Monte! I kept telling people about it when they asked "What's the rarest bird you've seen today?" since the Marbled Murrelet is listed as Threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. By the end of the day, Surf Scoters were the high count target species with 1,296 individuals flying by, with a Black Scoter and some Northern Pintails for good measure. "Coolest" bird of the day is bound to be the Leach's Storm-Petrel for the morning crew - what a neat bird. 

We easily talked to over 80 folks walking by, with some birders coming specifically to spend time with the Seawatch crew. It's always fun to find new lifer birds for fellow birders, either locals or those who traveled here from Australia! The Monterey Bay Half Marathon was happening in the morning, so there were a few runners who stopped to ask (quickly) what we were up to. 

-Amanda Preece