December 8

Weather: We started the morning with NE winds so brisk I clambered downslope to use the green bunker as a windbreak for a couple hours--tripod shake was too severe up top. When Catherine left for work, she wished us albatross and lessening winds. I probably would have picked absence of wind over presence of albatross, but turns out I didn't have to choose. We had 2 distant Black-foots AND the winds died off mid-morning. Swell was moderate, visibility good, skies clear.

Birds: All in all, a quiet day at Pt. Pinos. Surf Scoters: 55. Alcids: 2 Rhinoceros Auklets; 340 Common Murres. We had 89 Red-throated Loons and 644 Pacific Loons. Albatross aside, highlights included 2 adult Peregrine Falcons chasing a Black-bellied Plover high overhead (which seemed to make a getaway) and a pretty Black-legged Kittiwake that joined a scrum for a bit in mid-afternoon.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/440228

December 7

The morning broke cold with a wind blowing from the east. Loon hour delivered with 1819 Pacific Loons and 852 Common Murres in the 7:00am hour. These birds represented the majority of loons and murres for the day, with only 1346 more loons and 414 murres flying past the point throughout the rest of the day. Pacific loons dominated throughout the day, with only 59 Red-throated Loons counted during the day.

Additional morning highlights included a White-winged Scoter joining the first big scoter flock of the day, and a pair of Black Scoters flying together out of the Bay. A Black-legged Kittiwake and a Black-footed Albatross also appeared during the morning. The cold east wind kept up nearly the entire morning, not letting up until the 11:00 am hour.

During the noon hour, the wind died down and the temperatures warmed up, allowing the afternoon crew to enjoy pleasant seawatching conditions. Predictably, loon and migrating pelagic bird abundance dropped off significantly for the afternoon. As the swell decreased, however, conditions for murrelet viewing increased markedly. Fifteen Ancient Murrelets were seen in the 3:00 pm hour, including at least three sitting on the water in nice light just past the giant raft of sea otters, enabling prolonged views and close study. Other afternoon highlights included a couple of close-in jaegers, one a Parasitic, and the other a dark-morph Pomarine.

In a manner similar to last Sunday, a giant gull scrum developed over an apparent school of anchovies rising close to the surface just off the point. We could see the gulls stream in from all directions. California, Glaucous-winged, and Short-billed Gulls were all present in numbers, along with a smattering of American Herring and Iceland. Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, and a Great Blue Heron waited for the leftovers on the tidepool rocks.

-Fred Hochstaedter

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/439878

December 6

Weather: Wind this morning was moderate NE; it died off by late morning and switched to west in late afternoon. Visibility was pretty good all day--somewhat limited on the far outer line during the first half-hour or so of the count. It was sunny and the swell was moderate. At the outer buoy, winds at dawn were NNE ~8 knots, switching to W at 6 knots at 1300. At sunset the winds were WNW at ~8 knots. Pressure remains high: at dawn it was 30.13, and it stayed around that over the course of the day.

With NE winds, we weren't expecting a large loon flight, so we were delighted to have a BIG loon hour (6687 Pacifics!). It was also one of our most charismatic loon flights of this season: perfect light, many big (50+) flocks passing right in front of the count! Amanda messaged the WhatsApp "it's another wild loon passage morning out at the Pt. Pinos Seawatch! So many!!". Fortunately, she proofread the message before it sent, because "loon" had autocorrected to "loin". (On that note, this is my current phone's first Seawatch, and the autocorrect compilation is, at this point in the season, pretty extensive. Puffin=muffin; egret=regret; alcid=acid; rump=bump; pom=mom; passerines=casseroles).

After a bit of a morning lull (9AM-10AM had just 157 Pac Loons), we had another big loon hour (1658 Pacs) from 10-11. I'm guessing these birds started out further north than our early Loon Hour birds did. We ended the day with 10,068 Pacific Loons and 186 Red-throats.

The alcid flight was fun today too! Loon Hour was also Murre Hour: clicking by 10s, we got 3340, and ended the day with 4011. We also had a great Ancient Murrelet tally--202--with our biggest hourly tally being 117 from 10-11. The Ancient Murrelet flight was not nearly so charismatic as the loon flight; often, the Ancients fly at kelpline, but today, most of them were so far out they were barely recognizable. We had 139 Rhino Auklets today.

Other highlights: a beautiful Black-legged Kittiwake that I picked up during a rare solo moment at the count. It was such a pretty bird that I was like "man, I wish there was someone here to appreciate it with me" and then I heard tripod legs sliding out--Kai got to appreciate the kittiwake too. Shortly after the kittiwake, despite a mad scramble rife with mishaps, Kai also successfully photographed the Royal Tern that's become a Seawatch regular this week. We saw it twice today. I say it, but Bill had 2 Royals in Monterey today, so who knows how many we've actually got right now. Bill also ran to the Seawatch today, as part of a self-inflicted birding full-length marathon. Seawatch provided Ancient Murrelet and American Kestrel for the marathon list...

Tubenose diversity continues to be low, but 2 Black-footed Albatross appearances were nice. We heard that Monterey Whalewatching had a Laysan from one of their boats today--sure would like one at Seawatch.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/439463