Dec 14

Weather: For the first morning in a long time (for me--yesterday's relief counters also had a calm start to their day!)--we did not have a hard wind from the northeast, though there was east in what little wind we had. Visibility was somewhat limited by fog at dawn, though it quickly burned off everywhere, except for the far outer line. The wind never picked up, though it got enough west in it during the last hours of the count to gift us the aromas of Pt. Pinos's roost rocks. It was overcast for most of the day, with the sun popping out for a bit during afternoon. At the outer buoy, the wind at dawn was from the NNE at ~12 knots. It dropped over the morning, then switched to NW at ~4 knots at 1400. At sunset the wind was WSW ~10 knots. The pressure remains high: at dawn it was 30.11; it rose to 30.19 at 1100, then fell back to 30.14 at count's end.

Birds: Today was bookended by a high-volume murre flight (>1000) during Loon Hour and a sunset procession of jaegers and tubenoses (high in diversity, but not in volume): 2 Poms, 1 Parasitic; 1 Pink-footed Shearwater, 1 Short-tailed Shearwater, 1 Black-vented Shearwater. Sunset hour was also highlighted by Catherine's delivery of some Dark N Stormy cookies: ginger, dark rum, lime zest, YUM.

Mark pointed out some "November-size" scoter flocks of a few dozen each; the day's tally was a respectable 543, plus 2 Black Scoters.

Alcid totals were 81 Rhinos, 2 Marbled Murrelets, 1574 Common Murres, and 120 Marbled Murrelets.

Loon numbers are a trickle right now (44 Red-throats and 77 Pacifics), though I suspect there will be a big flight when the weather turns next--which, unfortunately, will be after the standardized seawatch ends and I am back in Michigan. I am confident that our resident Seawatchers will be here to catch and count that flight, though, and I look forward to seeing their numbers (which I will note in our end-of-season report). I will be sorry to miss that push. We are still about 25,000 loons short of the low end of our expected season's total; with the high pressure and light winds, I think the low count is more a reflection of weather patterns and a delayed southward movement than it is a population plunge.

Yesterday, Tripp (my partner), my dear friend Hannah Toutonghi, and I went down to Big Sur for my day off. Over the course of our friendship, Hannah and I have consistently packed very full adventures into short periods of time--yesterday was no exception. After enjoying the Ancient Murrelet flight at Seawatch, we drove down to Partington Cove, making worthy stops for things like California Condors and breakfast burritos from Big Sur Deli. At Partington, we parted ways: Tripp went down to the cove, where he found his first-ever American Dipper (which was in the same field of view as Black Oystercatchers!); Hannah and I went up Tanbark and down Ewoldsen, where we found a bobcat, my first-ever Northern Pygmy-Owl (it was eating a junco about 5 feet off the trail!!), and 35 banana slugs.

Before catching the meteor shower from Coast Rd., we grabbed dinner with our friend Tyler in Big Sur; amazingly, our server, Kristy, recognized Hannah from listers and mentioned she herself was a new birder! We completely distracted her from all her other tables but invited her to Seawatch. Kristy came to Seawatch today, much to our delight, and some close fulmars put on a great show during her visit. It's always great to share seawatch joy wherever we go...

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/443416

December 13

The weather pattern of the last few days has shown unusual regularity. A morning offshore breeze from the east shifts to south or southwest in the afternoon. Such were the winds today. Never strong enough to create whitecaps, or induce seabirds to fly in numbers.

Dawn broke with a not-so-common-at-the-point Common Goldeneye and twice as many California Gulls than Western Gulls flying over the water. Loon Hour disappointed with the number of loons–79 Pacific and 13 Red-throated–but delivered with the alcid show. More than 800 Common Murres, 46 Rhino Auklets, and 14 Cassin’s Auklets appeared over the water. An astounding 172 Ancient Murrelets, counted individually flying out of the bay, tripped the eBird rare bird filter.

By the 8:00 am hour the loons and alcids had slowed to a trickle and by the 9:00 am hour the loons had shut off completely with not a single loon recorded in the hour. These zero to single digit hourly numbers would continue throughout the day. Late in the morning a distant scrum developed, involving thousands of gulls too distant to identify.

In the afternoon, the low loon and alcid numbers continued, involving flights of single digits to low double digits of birds. Just before dusk, as the clouds rolled in and the skies darkened, the alcid flight picked up. Nearly 100 Common Murre, 8 Rhino Auklets, and 18 Ancient Murrelets were recorded in the last hour of the day. Surf Scoter numbers were strong all afternoon, with several big flocks sneaking by low over the water, high over our heads, or behind us over the lighthouse. Counts of mid to high double digits and low triple digits were recorded each hour of the afternoon.

The bird of the afternoon, however, was probably Brant. Several big flocks flew by, causing us to shout “Scoters!” followed shortly by, “Oh No! Not Scoters! Those are Brant!” A small flock of them sat on the water for several hours just off First Rock.

It was an enjoyable afternoon, with many curious people strolling by asking the usual questions. Our young outreach volunteers did a fabulous job explaining the goals and purpose of our efforts. It was a joy to watch.

-Fred Hochstaedter

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/442371

December 10

Weather: At Pt. Pinos, the wind had east in it all day, but fortunately, the wind was not too severe. Swell was moderate, visibility was quite good, and it was sunny. At the outer buoy, the wind at dawn was NNE ~12 knots. It fell to ~8 knots at noon, switched to NW ~8 knots at 1300. Pressure continues to be high: 30.15 at dawn, 30.07 at sunset. The monotony of the weather looks like it will continue until the count season ends on December 15th.

Birds: I think my favorite birds today were a gorgeous DARK Pom jaeger with beautiful silver wingflashes--perhaps the darkest Pom I've seen at Seawatch, and 1 of 2 Poms that came by today. Also a favorite: a "seawatch-close" Black-footed Albatross (on the far side of the buoy, but closer to the buoy than to the horizon). It did some splendid arcs and was oohed and ahhed over by everyone present. A flock of 15 Greater White-fronted Geese flying towards Santa Cruz was, perhaps, the largest flock of this species I've seen migrating past Seawatch.

Only 44 Surf Scoters, 33 Red-throated Loons, and 425 Pacific Loons today; Ancient Murrelets made a good showing--46--but Common Murres (426) and Rhinoceros Auklets (2) were quite scarce.

Interestingly, over the course of the day, we had 14 Barn Swallows cruise past Pt. Pinos today, all flying NNE across the bay--it seems to be quite a few for this late in the season.

I mentioned that CBS news came out for king tide last week, and that I didn't do a very good job talking about king tides. Apparently, I did a great job talking about Seawatch though, because Scott from CBS came back today to do a piece on Seawatch. It should air relatively soon, so stay tuned! I'm delighted with the press that Seawatch has gotten this year; it seems fitting for the tenth year of a project that collects valuable data--and has also collected a devoted group of Seawatchers.

A big thank you, by the way, to all those who stayed up past their bedtime (or was that just me that stayed up past my bedtime?!) to attend the Monterey Audubon meeting last night. Per Shannon, we had 105 attendees, which might be the biggest audience I've spoken to! It's always a bit unnerving to break in a brand new presentation, which this one was, but whenever I speak for Monterey Audubon I know I'm speaking to a room of friends and that helps so much.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/440866