November 22

Weather: Calm and clear, with moderate swell and good visibility throughout the day.

Birds: As it so often is during a run of calm, clear days, it was a quiet--but pleasant--day at the Seawatch. We had 684 Surf Scoters--their flight certainly seems to be tapering, though we had some nice, close sunset-hour flocks, which are always an exciting bit of visible migration for birders and nonbirders alike.

We had 134 Red-throated Loons, 1791 Pacific Loons, and 13 Common Loons; the Pacific Loon flight in the morning was primarily on the bay-cutting (but not far outer) line; in afternoon most flocks were birds passing in front of us as they flew out of the bay.

Though it was quiet in regard to tubenoses and alcids, we had some highlights: a Marbled Murrelet and an Ancient Murrelet flew past, kelpline distance, and together for a comparison I don't think any of us had gotten before! The Marbled looked especially long-winged; the dark underwings and white on scapulars were very apparent, while the Ancient's short bill, lighter underwings, and blue-gray back also stood out. Several close Short-tailed Shearwaters found themselves into our fields of view. Bill spotted a wonderful, close Pomarine Jaeger that still had its spooners. And the kittiwake streak continues--we had one today.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/435443

November 21

Weather: Seawatch today was sunny, with light winds from the E during the morning that switched to light W in the afternoon. Visibility was quite good all day, and the swell was substantial. At the outer buoy, winds were NNW at 6 knots at dawn. They switched to ENE at 15.5 knots by 0800, then switched back to NNW at 1200, then WSW at 1500. Pressure rose from 29.98 at dawn to 30.05 at sunset.

Birds: It was a pretty quiet day, though we did have 2555 Pacific Loons (and a nice afternoon push, 920 during the 1200-1300 hour). We also had 122 Red-throated Loons and 8 Common Loons. Flocks of Band-tailed Pigeons were streaming out high over the bay in the morning; we tallied 515. Surf Scoters are really seeming to taper--just 279 today, and no flocks >25ish individuals.

For alcids, we had 9 Rhinoceros Auklets, 1 Pigeon Guillemot, 487 Common Murres, and 12 Ancient Murrelets. 6 Black-legged Kittiwakes and a Pink-footed Shearwater were nice, and the season's first Snow Goose briefly gave me a panic: it was alone, quite distant, and was doing weird things like flying low and circling--doing things like boobies do... Brant aside, we haven't had geese this year--no Cackler/Canada/Snow/White-front amalgamation on Crespi, and no Cackler flight, though I did have a small distant flock of Cackling/Canada today during the same hour I had the Snow Goose.

The unrivaled highlight of today was the killer whale pod that did a long, sedate drive-by just beyond the kelpline this morning. My previous experience with killer whales at Seawatch is having a distant dorsal randomly pop into my field of view, which is awesome in its own way, but what a treat to see the whales up close! Many thanks to Kai (and Dane) for letting me know to be on the lookout. A season treat, for sure.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/434630

2025 Pt. Pinos Seawatch - 20 Nov

Weather: It rained off and on at Seawatch today until early afternoon, when the wind--previously calm--picked up to a pretty brisk NW wind. Visibility was fairly limited during the biggest parts of the morning push: it was frustrating to have steady presence of dark shearwaters at a distance where the distortion was so bad the birds were impossible to identify. The swell was moderate. At the outer buoy, the wind was NE at 6 knots at dawn. It switched to NW at noon, building to W at 19 knots by 1500. Pressure at dawn was 30.01; it fell slightly to 29.96 at the count's end.

Birds: The dominant movement of the morning was a big flight of Rhinoceros Auklets--a species whose densest flights seem to coincide with rain here. We tallied 2830 in the 0800-0900 hour, when low flocks of 15-40+ were flying out of the bay from buoy distance all the way to the horizon. Our daily tally was 3363. We also had 578 Common Murres and 20 Ancient Murrelets.

The Surf Scoter flight seems to be tapering--for now. We had just 640 (and 1 Black Scoter) today.

We had 385 Red-throated Loons, 2599 Pacific Loons, and 15 Common Loons; in regard to the PALOs, 1000-1600 were all triple-digit hours, and this sort of steady movement continues into the afternoon, it often signals a nice flight the following morning. We shall see!

For what feels like the first time in days, we had shearwaters, including a wonderfully close Short-tailed that gave us a look that lasted several minutes during the last hour of the count. We had 2 Sooty, 5 Short-tailed, and 63 SOSH/STSH, and there continue to be many, many Northern Fulmars in the bay.

Other highlights today included a Pomarine Jaeger, 11 Black-legged Kittiwakes (again, most of these in the late afternoon count hours), and our first Forster's Terns (2) of the season.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/434443