November 5 - Storm Petrels

One of several Black Storm-petrels just beyond the rocks

Weather: At Pt. Pinos, the day started fairly calm and mostly cloudy. Enough sky was clear, however, that we caught the moon setting into the ocean to our west as the sky to our east turned red. There were many rainbows today. The wind started to pick up from the south around 0800; some of the gusts were substantial, but we never had to hunker in behind a vehicle. The wind dropped off again by late afternoon, and though it looked very rainy over towards Santa Cruz, we only got a few sprinkles at the Seawatch. Visibility was a little rough in the morning: the air seemed very wet. At the outer buoy, it was blowing from the SE at 25 knots at dawn. The wind remained in this range until 1500, when it dropped to 12 knots. Pressure at dawn was 30.01, and pressure rose throughout the day to 30.16 at sunset. There is a substantial storm offshore; last night a BIG weather system was rotating counterclockwise around the north Pacific, impacting the central California coast up to southeast Alaska. I got to Seawatch today not knowing if I should look for Horned Puffins or if I should look for frigatebirds--it was a hard weather system to get a read on, but I knew that something unexpected would probably pass Seawatch.

We like northwest winds at Pt. Pinos, but in the four years I've counted here, I've noticed that boobies and storm-petrels turn up more often than not after strong south. Well, we had an EPIC storm-petrel day at Seawatch: we had 44 storm-petrels of three species, and we saw storm-petrels within every full hour of the count. That's ten hours of storm-petrels! These all were heading out of the bay at varying distances, from binocular-range birds at the kelpline to ones at the horizon line. We even saw an Ashy pop up in the same field of view as an arcing Black-footed Albatross: where else but Pinos can you stand on land and watch this?!

The storm-petrel breakdown: 2 Leach's, 27 Ashy, 9 Black (prior to today, just four total had been recorded during Seawatch!), and 6 unidentified storm-petrels. In regard to other tubenoses, we had 1 Black-footed Albatross, 1 unidentified albatross, 31 Northern Fulmars, and 6 Sooty Shearwaters.

Our "regular" seawatch birds were pretty slim today--not surprising on a day with very strong winds from the direction that migratory birds are trying to get. We had just 167 Surf Scoters, 35 Red-throated Loons, 56 Pacific Loons, and 3 Common Loons; 46 Brant--a "seagoose" we see here more often when the weather's bad--were nice.

Alcid diversity and numbers were up today, with most movement happening from dawn-0800. 222 Rhinoceros Auklets, 28 Cassin's Auklets, 3 Marbled Murrelets, 1 Pigeon Guillemot, 384 Common Murres.

Other highlights today: a gorgeous SABINE'S GULL Kai spotted--always a great bird during Seawatch season; 2 Parasitic Jaegers; 2 Red-necked Grebes; our first Band-tailed Pigeon flock of the season; a Peregrine Falcon stooping on a Black Turnstone.

Tonight, I'm going to bed feeling like I went to storm-petrel school--during the last hour of the count, I spotted a distant Black that, this morning, I would not have been able to confidently identify at that range. I'm going to bed with tired eyes: storm-petrels are easier to lose in the troughs than they are to find, and winnowing them from the waves involves a different type of looking. And I am going to bed very happy: any day with a storm-petrel at Seawatch is a great day, let alone 10 hours of 44 storm-petrels shared with so many Seawatch friends. Often after busy migration days at Seawatch, I see scoters or murres when I close my eyes in bed. Tonight, I'll probably keep seeing storm-petrels...

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/429842

Tuesday November 4

Weather: There is currently a BIG weather system in the north Pacific rotating counter-clockwise: strong south winds in far north CA up to Gulf of Alaska. I suspect this system is at least a reason for why Seawatch was so slow today. There was a lot of salt in the air at Seawatch today, but that aside, visibility was good--finally, not foggy. It was partly cloudy and fairly calm this morning, with winds kicking up from the south this afternoon. Swell was pretty small. At the outer buoy, winds at dawn were ~10 kt from the NE, dropping and switching to SE at 0900. By the count's end they'd built back up to ~10 kt SSE; apparently there is a gale warning from 2100-1500 tomorrow. Pressure at dawn was 30.08 and stayed fairly stable all day, dropping around sunset to 30.03

Birds: It would not surprise me if today was one of the quietest days of the season. We had just 153 Surf Scoters, 60 Red-throated Loons, 52 Pacific Loons, and 5 Common Loons. Alcid diversity was nice--we had single Cassin's Auklets, Marbled Murrelets, and Pigeon Guillemots--but murre movement was very minimal (265 for the day). We had just 13 Northern Fulmars and 2 Sooty Shearwaters for tubenoses, and also just one jaeger today, a Parasitic. The first non-Audubon's warbler of the season, a Townsend's, was a nice afternoon flyover, and while we didn't have a huge amount of Red Phalaropes today, it was fun when little rafts of them mysteriously appeared in our fields of view this afternoon. While not Pt. Pinos proper, I did have 16 Scaly-breasted Munias in the reeds at Crespi Pond today, which is only the second time I've detected this species near Seawatch. They definitely threw my Michigan ears, currently recalibrating, for a loop...

I think we all are curious what tomorrow will bring: changes in weather--even if the change is not that revered northwest gale--always bring changes in birds to the Seawatch, and, rain or shine, we'll be out there to see what might blow in.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/429542

2025 Seawatch - Nov 3

Photo by Mark Chappell - March 2024

Weather: This morning started, again, with fog--we could not see to the buoy. The fog lingered for most of the morning, though by mid-morning we were consistently seeing to the buoy and by afternoon we were able to see Loma and the stacks at Moss Landing, and it even got sunny. It was fairly calm at Pt. Pinos itself; at the outer buoy at dawn, winds were WSW at 8 knots and remained westerly and <8 knots over the course of the day. Pressure was 30.06 at dawn, rising to 30.14 at 1100, then falling to 30.05 by the count's end .

Birds: It was a fairly slow day, but thanks to a late-afternoon look at a COCOS BOOBY (a GOOD look, by Seawatch standards, and a lifer for at least one of our great volunteers!), it didn't feel like a quiet day. Crazy how just one bird can bring an adrenaline rush that becomes the dominant flavor of the day. We had 645 SURF SCOTERS and 1 BLACK SCOTER--a quiet scoter day. We had 3 RHINOCEROS AUKLETS, 1 MARBLED MURRELET, 1 PIGEON GUILLEMOT, and 227 COMMON MURRES. 2 PARASITIC JAEGERS were fun! On the loon front, we had 17 RED-THROATS, 98 PACIFICS, and 32 COMMONS. Tubenoses were sparse: 10 fulmars, 3 Sooties, 1 Short-tailed Shearwater. We had ample opportunity to laugh at the cranky Heermann's Gull flock that kept complaining about wet feet, compliments of the big full moon tide. And Kai and I heard, just once in the afternoon, an intriguing passerine high overhead that sounded wagtaily (White or possibly Gray). There was a lot of background noise, and I wouldn't put money on it, but it was very interesting.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist - https://ebird.org/tripreport/429313