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

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