November 14

Weather: The early morning hours were foggy and thick with salt spray because of the high tide and storm-spawned swells; we could barely see to the buoy for several hours. Visibility improved by afternoon, however, and was so good at sunset that I could briefly see an albatross arcing out at the limits of where my scope reaches. It was calm at Pt. Pinos all day, sunny in the afternoon, and the swell was monumental, the sort that gives you sea legs on land if you look at it in the spotting scope for too long. At the outer buoy, winds were light and variable all morning, staying west at about 8 knots from 1400-sunset. Pressure rose from 29.88 at dawn to 29.95 at sunset.

Birds: It was quite quiet at the count today, with the highlight being an evening Black-legged Kittiwake. Often, our calm-day kittiwakes cruise by during the last couple hours of the count...

The Surf Scoter flight is greatly diminished from the last two days: just 810, today, with most movement in the morning. The loon flight is picking up, subtly: we had 203 Red-throats, 338 Pacifics, and 97 Commons--a good daily count for this latter species. Loon movement was strongest from Loon Hour (0700)-1000 today.

Alcids were very sparse today! Just 16 Rhinos, 1 Cassin's, 2 Pigeon Guillemots, 50 Common Murres, and 8 Ancient Murrelets.

Tubenose diversity was low: that sunset albatross sp., 19 Sooty Shearwaters, and 173 Northern Fulmars (the highest horizon-horizon count for the fulmars was 59).

A Pomarine Jaeger and a Red-necked Grebe were part of our less-common seabird contingent, and on the landbird front, we had a flock of 109 Band-tailed Pigeons milling around high above the Point during the morning.

For the last two days, there has been a marked increase in outbound Brown Pelicans, and yesterday evening, very high flocks of Heermann's Gulls were also flying out of the bay, which makes me wonder if they, too, are migrating.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/432605

2025 Pt. Pinos Seawatch - 13 Nov

Weather: Today was the wettest I've ever had at Pt. Pinos. It rained from the time I arrived right up into the last hour of the count, when a little sliver of sunset appeared right in time for our last big scoter flocks of the day to look gorgeous against. The wind at Pt. Pinos felt far less than what was predicted--there was about twenty minutes of gusting sideways rain--but I expected about six hours of that. I am very glad those expectations were not met... Visibility was quite poor all day; at best, we couldn't see much past the red buoy; at worst, the red buoy was barely visible. At dawn, the outer buoy was registering 27-knot wind from the southeast. It dropped and switched to 8 knots SSW at 1300. Pressure at dawn was 29.80, rising somewhat to 29.85 at sunset.

Birds: Today's storm to storm-petrel ratio was weighted more towards storm than it was towards storm-petrel. We did have at least two Ashies though, and any day with a storm-petrel in it is a good day in by book.

Other reasons why it was a good day: We had 3586 Surf Scoters (and 1 White-winged and 2 Black Scoters)! We had a late Red-necked Phalarope! We had 2 Short-tailed Shearwaters and 20 Ancient Murrelets! Even with the dreary weather, so many friends swung to bring sustenance in the form of snacks, hot drinks, and companionship! I got to see two humpbacks double-breach! And there were quite a few rain beetles (genus Pleocoma) flying around. If you're not familiar with rain beetles, I wasn't either, so here is some of what I learned: rain beetles are ONLY found in western North America. They spend most of their lives as larvae, underground. Fall and winter rain events elicit emergence: the females, flightless, stay in a burrow and release pheremones to attract the short-lived males, who fly around low to the ground searching for a mate. Insect lives are pretty wild, right?!

Male rain beetles were buzzing around the point searching for females in their burrows.

In addition to the highlights above, regarding alcids, we had 33 Rhinos, 1 Cassin's, and 526 Common Murres. For loons, 57 Red-throats, 44 Pacifics, and 7 Commons. We had 64 Northern Fulmars, 5 Pink-footed Shearwaters, and 4 Sooty Shearwaters. We had 1 Parasitic and 7 Pomarine Jaegers.

I think tomorrow morning, if it's not foggy, might bring a good flight--loons were moving a little bit in the final hour, of the count, winds tomorrow will be light, and it seems like birds are eager to move...

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/432260

November 12

Weather: The skies looked wet, frontal, and a bit ominous all day but it stayed dry at the count. The wind was moderate from the south, visibility was good, and swell was minimal. There's a big storm offshore to the northwest, which is forecast to bring strong winds and heavy rain tomorrow. Will we get another batch of storm-petrels from this system, too? We had an ASHY STORM-PETREL this evening--a good omen, I hope. At the outer buoy winds were SE today, building to 21 knots by the count's end. Pressure fell from 30.04 at dawn to 29.92 at sunset.

It's fun to set up in the morning when it's still dark and wonder with each other what the day might bring. I thought it might be a big Surf Scoter day: it's the right juncture of season, their flight had a pulse during the evening hours of yesterday's count, and I've noticed they like to push right before a front. However I've thought for about five days we were going to get a BIG Surf Scoter flight and I've been wrong, so there's that...

Catherine predicted a big Rhino flight, since last year we had big Rhino flights immediately before big weather systems.

We were both right. We tallied 3431 Rhinoceros Auklets today, a number that will likely be in the running for the season's daily high! A whopping 2415 of these were during Loon Hour.

Surf Scoters flew hard all day. Morning flocks were mostly high over the point and 50-150 individuals. During the afternoon, we noticed more flocks cutting the bay: there is something delightful about staring across towards Loma Prieta and catching a low, distant wall of scoters so big it's several scope fields wide coming head-on (bright orange bill-on?!) towards Pinos. During evening, a few big flocks cut sneakily cut behind us over the lighthouse, and a gorgeous flock of 400+ came right over the count. The amount of motion within a Surf Scoter flock this big is just gorgeous, and I'm so glad there was a good crowd of us there to appropriately awe over it. We ended the day with 12,373 tallied. (Peak in 2022 was 4401 on 3 Nov; in 2023 it was 14,848 on 16 Nov; in 2024 it was 4480 on 27 Nov).

We had only 26 ducks today that were NOT Surf Scoters, which is crazy. A White-winged Scoter, a Black Scoter, and my first American Wigeon of the season highlighted these.

Common Murres had a big day too: 1798, peaking during Loon Hour like the Rhinos did. We also had 14 Cassin's Auklets and 19 Ancient Murrelets.

It was a slow loon day, which with south winds did not surprise me. 71 Red-throats, 231 Pacifics, 30 Commons.

We saw an Ashy Storm-Petrel twice during early evening. Otherwise, for tubenoses, we had 142 Northern Fulmars, 4 Pink-footed Shearwaters, 148 Sooty Shearwaters, and 3 Short-tailed Shearwaters.

Other highlights: 3 Royal Terns, 2 Parasitic and 3 Pomarine Jaegers, and 660 Band-tailed Pigeons representing several flocks that milled around high above Pt. Pinos. Where else but Pinos can you see big, dynamic flocks of Surf Scoters and Band-tailed Pigeons in the same field of view?!

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist - https://ebird.org/tripreport/431906