Short-eared Owls! - Nov 16

Another fun day at the Seawatch, highlighted by: not one but TWO Short-eared Owls that came by at hours when they could be appreciated by Seawatch regulars; a very confiding and close Leach's Storm-Petrel; some less-common waterfowl (a Redhead, 2 Black Scoters, 7 Common Mergansers); 6 Black-legged Kittiwakes; 3 Marbled Murrelets and 45 Ancient Murrelets; a Northern Harrier; a distant flock of Snow/Ross's Geese flying high towards the northeast. (The geese had been seen by Bill Hubick over El Carmelo cemetery just prior to detecting them at the Seawatch!)

I did not expect the loon flight to be so diminished from the 20,000+ flight yesterday, but, I'll be honest: it was nice to start the morning in a calmer fashion. We tallied 1051 Pacifics, 556 Red-throats, and 42 Commons; sunrise hour was the busiest for Red-throated (262) and the following hour the busiest for Pacifics (418). The loon flight we observed today was above and in front of us; we were not detecting flocks on the outer line.

We had another nice Surf Scoter flight: 2871, with the first and last hours of the count bringing us over 500 each. During the sunset hour, some of the large flocks were cutting behind us over the golf course, like they do fairly predictably late in the day.

The murre flight this morning was intense: for the first two hours, we had well over 1000, and ended the day with 5279 total; Rhinoceros Auklets were also numerous, 684 for the day; we had 4 Cassin's Auklets as well as the 3 Marbled and 45 Ancients mentioned above.

Tubenose numbers were diminished from yesterday: 11 Pink-foots, 19 Sooties, and the Leach's. Fulmars were plentiful in the morning, with >100 being clicked during each of the first two hours of the count.

The wind was <5 kt from the ENE at the outer buoy this morning, switching to 8-12 kt west in the afternoon, but remaining <5 kt at the Point. Swell was minimal, visibility was fairly good, and it was mostly sunny.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/293436

- Alison Vilag

Big Loon Energy - Nov 15

The three standout features of today's count: 1. We saw species of birds that nest in Alaska (Pacific Loon), Hawaii (Black-footed Albatross), Chile (Pink-footed Shearwater), New Zealand (Sooty Shearwater), and Antarctica (Wilson's Storm-Petrel). All today. All in Monterey Bay. 2. Going into the day, our highest hourly loon count of the season was 600-something. I had been hoping for a nice warm-up period of gradually larger flights leading into our BIG loon flights, but no such luxury was granted--our highest hourly loon count today was more than 11,500. 3. We used a grand total of three different vehicles for windbreaks today, which might be a record for me at the Seawatch.

Driving over to the count predawn, it was raining and already blowing from the northwest--a sure sign of a good day at Pinos. The rain cleared out before the count started, but the wind persisted and built: by the count's end, it was blowing 15 knots at Pt. Pinos.

Pacific Loon flocks began appearing essentially when it became light enough to pick them out. First, the highline was the most heavily traveled, but I took quick peeks at the far outer flightline, suspecting that it would eventually become a river of (very distant) loon flocks. It did. Kai and Catherine, providentially, were out there with me and I had them focus on what was passing the Point while I stuck my head into my scope on the bay-cutting line. My face hardly left my scope for the next two hours: during that period, we tallied over 7,000 Pacific Loons the first hour, and over 11,638 Pacifics the second (0700) hour. Loon totals for the day were 20,155 Pacifics and 1166 Red-throats, with 0600, 0700, and 0800 all being thousand+ loon hours.

Surf Scoters pushed hard today too, with the 4255 tallied marking (so far) the daily peak of the season. The peak hour, 1086, was the 0700-0800 hour, and the flight was heaviest from 0600-1000.

It was a big alcid day too. We hit our peak daily murre count (5377) of the season so far; the peak hour was 1368 at 1100; there probably was not any time over the entire course of the day when, looking out over the water, you couldn't see a multitude of murres blasting west.

We also had 3 Pigeon Guillemots and 50 Ancient Murrelets.

We hope for good tubenose diversity and numbers on conditions like these, and we were not disappointed. The star of this show today was the WILSON'S STORM-PETREL that Brian spotted--a first record not only for the Seawatch, but, per eBird, also for Pt. Pinos. We also had 2 Leach's Storm-Petrels, a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel, 2 Black-footed Albatrosses, and good numbers of Pink-footed Shearwater (67), Sooty Shearwater (57), and Short-tailed Shearwater (11). A multitude of Northern Fulmars were in the bay as well: we tallied 468 today, with the peak hourly count being 140 (at 1500).

Today was one of those days you anticipate when starting a Seawatch season at Pinos. Overwhelming, grueling, absolutely beautiful in the way that big scoter and loon flights are--and shared with people who love seawatching; love migration; love letting their minds and dreams go out to sea in the way that comes from peering through a spotting scope and sorting through the swells.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/293059

- Alison Vilag

Seawatch - Nov 14

Another fun day out at the Seawatch! Like yesterday, sunrise itself was tame enough, but a half-hour or so into the count, just like they did yesterday, Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets started pouring out of the bay en masse. We tallied 2509 Rhinoceros Auklets (peak hour 0700, with 1630 recorded) and 4958 Common Murres (peak hour also 0700, with 3200 recorded). Both murres and Rhinoceros Auklets were clicked by 10s during that peak hour but otherwise counted individually. The other alcid highlight today was a flock of 20 Ancient Murrelets that flew out of the bay drafting a Common Murre.

The swell today (it's king tide, too) was utterly dramatic, and just as much a part of the alcid flight as the murres and Rhinos were. At times it felt like a towering wall of surf was bearing down on the Point, and teasing trough-traveling alcids from the sea today was both frustrating and awesome: a ball of 60+ birds would heave into view, just to be swallowed back up almost immediately.

Fortunately, the ceiling today was low enough that the loon flight was both late to start (peaking around 0930 instead of 0700) AND it the flightline was relatively low in altitude: peak alcid and peak loon movement was happening in the same field of view, which is a rare treat. It was our first 1000+ Pacific Loon day of the season (1744 total; peak hour 0900 with 609 and several flocks of ~40), and we only tallied 101 Red-throats today.

The Surf Scoter flight picked up a bit today, with 341 tallied.

Yesterday, I suspected the thousand+ Bonaparte's Gulls leaving the bay were some sort of exodus, and that does seem to be the case: I only tallied 29 today, and also had 69 Elegant Terns leaving the bay.

Tubenose numbers were low today, testament to light winds. We had 5 Pink-foots, 2 Sooties, 1 Short-tailed Shearwater, 4 Black-vents, and 6 Sooty/Short-tails.

Visibility was limited to somewhat beyond the buoy for most of the count today, and was reduced to about buoy-distance for about an hour in the early afternoon. Winds at the Point were light all day, and at the outer buoy, they were light overnight, building to 8kt from the west by 1300 and 12 kt from the west by count's close. Pressure dropped from 30.11 overnight to 29.96 at count's close.

Tomorrow (Friday's) forecast looks to be the best winds we've had to date this season. I'm excited and hopeful over what will transpire: perhaps, my most reasonable hope is our season's first thousand-loon hour.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/292646

- Alison Vilag