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

December 9

Weather: The morning started with brisk east winds that settled and then went light west for the last couple hours of the count. Visibility was good, swell was moderate, skies were clear.

Birds: I think the fan favorite today was the afternoon Ancient Murrelet flight. We had 67 go by during the 2PM-3PM hour, and tallied 141 over the day's course. We also had a nice large alcid push during the 0800-0900 hour; daily totals: 819 Rhinoceros Auklet, 2320 Common Murres, 1 Cassin's Auklet, 1 Ancient Murrelet. Also fun were a scattering of jaegers. 1 Parasitic and 4 Pomarines were close enough to identify.

The loon fight was also respectable: 114 Red-throats and 2485 Pacifics (846 during 0800-0900 and a nice 2PM-3PM push of 402 to go with the Ancient Murrelets).

We had a few non-fulmar tubenoses: 2 Black-footed Albatross, the first Sooty Shearwater in several days, and 2 Black-vented Shearwaters.

Just 65 Surf Scoters.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/440227

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