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

First week complete! 2025 Pt. Pinos Seawatch - 8 Nov

Weather: No fog today, which was much appreciated by all who have endured the fair amount of fog we'd had this week... winds weren't great: moderate NNE at the Point for most of the morning, dying off in late afternoon. Swell was moderate, skies were mostly clear, no precipitation. At the outer buoy, winds at dawn were NNE at 8 knots, switching to NNW at 0900. They built to 12 knots W at 1600. Pressure at dawn was 30.00, and it fell slightly to 29.94 at sunset.

Birds: There was nice Surf Scoter movement today: we tallied 1171; the biggest push happened in late afternoon, with our biggest "hour" actually being less than a half-hour: the 1700-last light checklist. We had 253 go by in that short span of time, which has me wondering if there will be a good push Sunday morning, which is my day off. We had a few other ducks mixed in today: 5 Northern Shoveler, 1 Green-winged Teal, 1 Black Scoter, 3 Bufflehead.

There were also some interesting shorebirds around: 4 Wilson's Snipe flew in, seemingly off the ocean, shortly after sunrise, and 3 dowitcher sp. passed by during the afternoon. Red Phalaropes continue to fly out of the bay in good numbers--today we had 181.

We had 5 Parasitic Jaegers and 1 Pomarine today; they're the perfect bird at Seawatch when it's been a long (but a great!) week, the wind is in your face, salt is in eyes and coating lenses, and you need a little pick-me-up. Watching their stealth missions towards unsuspecting Heermann's Gulls and Elegant Terns is always a thrill!

Alcid presence continues to be relatively low. We had 2 Rhinoceros Auklets, 983 Common Murres (mostly dawn-0900), and 4 Ancient Murrelets--another favorite Seawatch bird--today. We all got spoiled by the abundance of ANMU last year and would really love a repeat...

There was consistent movement of Bonaparte's Gulls (253) and Elegant Terns (145) out of the bay today, and we had our first-of-Seawatch season Black-legged Kittiwake.

The loon flight was quite quiet today: 120 Red-throats, 220 Pacifics, and 5 Commons. Most loon movement happened during "loon hour" (0700-0800), and there were some loons and scoters moving along the far outer line.

Our storm-petrel run continues! We had 2 today; the one we identified was a Black Storm-Petrel that flew into the bay around sunset. We also had 29 Northern Fulmars and 10 Sooty Shearwaters.

There was a little American Pipit flight that headed towards Santa Cruz today--we had 49, and probably missed many more.

The last hour and a half of today's count was a perfect way to end my workweek. Elegant Terns, close enough to hear, were streaming towards the sunset; we had a jaeger or two; the Black Storm-Petrel, our fifteenth (!!) of the week, was fantastic, especially since Madison, who had to work during our biggest storm-petrel runs this week, was able to see it. And having big scoter flocks flying out of the bay through the dusk always makes you wonder what the next morning will hold... thank you Seawatch and thank you Monterey Audubon for an absolute banger of a first week back.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/430877

2025 Pt. Pinos Seawatch - 7 Nov

Weather: At the Point, it was a calm day. The swell was substantial, though somewhat diminished from yesterday, and visibility was generally pretty good, except from about 1400-1545, when the fog was so thick we couldn't even see the end of Pt. Pinos. At the outer buoy at dawn, winds were NNE at 4 knots. They switched to W at 1100, building to 12 knots by the count's end. Pressure at dawn was 30.18 and it fell to 30.03 by the count's end.

Birds: We had a modest loon flight this morning! 382 Red-throats and 381 Pacifics were tallied today, with the busiest loon hours being 0700-0900. I really was expecting a big Surf Scoter flight today: winds further north on the Pacific coast have finally become favorable for migration, but we still had just 313 pass by. A lone drake Redhead came by this afternoon: always a good bird at Seawatch!

It was a decent alcid day: 288 Rhinoceros (mostly from 0700-0900), a Cassin's Auklet, 2 Marbled Murrelets, and 285 Common Murres (mostly during the dawn and sunset hours).

Red Phalaropes were moving out of the bay today; we tallied 336.

The jaeger show (5 Parasitics and 3 Poms) was a fun watch, as always. There sure seem to be more Parasitics hanging around the bay than there have during my other seasons (perhaps, this coincides with the good amount of Elegant Terns that are still around!), and I'm digging it, though the terns and gulls sure don't seem to share my opinion...

And the storm-petrels keep going! Today's Leach's (1), Ashy (4), and Black (4) put us over FIFTY storm-petrels logged during Seawatch's first week. Scoters and storm-petrels occupy completely different levels of airspace at Pt. Pinos, so I guess it's a good thing the scoter flight is not happening right now--there's no way I could spend as much time fixated on the storm-petrel zone if high scoter flocks were blasting by... Bill even ran (yes, ran with his legs) from Seaside to see if he could get a storm-petrel on his running list. Hopefully, the Black Storm-Petrel he got gave him enough juice to make the return run somewhat painless...

Kai was on a boat that departed from Moss Landing today and had Black and Ashy Storm-Petrels... what a crazy week it's been for them in the bay!

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/430380