December 3

Weather: The wind this morning was northeast, but it was less than I expected -- a nice surprise! It never built much over the course of the day at Pt. Pinos, though it shifted more north in afternoon; it was overcast early, clearing during afternoon, visibility was very good, swell was big. At the outer buoy, the wind was ENE at 6 knots at sunrise; winds remained E until dusk, when they shifted to W 6 knots. Pressure this morning was 30.08 and it rose to 30.12 at sunset.

Birds: I didn't have lofty expectations for today's flight, so it was a wonderful surprise to have a good loon flight (2500 Pacifics during loon hour, mostly mid-level flocks passing in front of Pt. Pinos). We ended the day with 3329 Pacifics and 120 Red-throats. We also came close to our first four-digit Surf Scoter flight in quite some time: 934, plus three Blacks and one White-wing. A bunch of Ancient Murrelets - 63! - came through during Loon Hour; we only had one outside of Loon Hour... our other alcids today were 19 Rhinoceros Auklets, 1 Cassin's Auklet, and 514 Common Murres.

We had 2 Pink-footed Shearwaters today, as well as a Black-vent and a Short-tailed. Black-footed Albatross presence continues to build, which has been my experience in December at Pt. Pinos. I saw albatross during 7 hours of the count today, which made me extraordinarily happy; I'm certain there were at least three around, and at times they came almost as close as the buoy, which is pretty close for an albatross from Pt. Pinos.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/438551

December 2

Weather: At dawn this morning, the wind was still coming out of the east, but not as intensely as it has been for the last week. The wind dropped off in mid-morning, then shifted west in late afternoon. Visibility was good, the swell was large, and it was a clear day. At the outer buoy, winds started at ~12 knots north, went ~10 knots NNE at 0900, switched to W at 1300, and were W ~10 knots at sunset. At dawn, pressure was 30.08, rising to 30.11 at 1000, then falling to 30.02 at the count's end.

Birds: We had the biggest Surf Scoter day I've seen for awhile - 839. For loons, we had 64 Red-throats and 1457 Pacifics (462 of these were during loon hour, and we had a nice midafternoon push, too).

Alcid and tubenose numbers were low, but diversity was good! In addition to the usual suspects within these groups, we had 2 Pigeon Guillemots, 10 Ancient Murrelets, 1 Black-footed Albatross, 1 Sooty Shearwater, and 1 Black-vented Shearwater.

A Black-legged Kittiwake and what was likely 1 Royal Tern (making 3 appearances) were fun, too. East winds dominate our forecast for the next few days; I don't have high expectations for high loon volume or tubenose appearances.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist:

December 1

Weather: Dawn started with fog AND a stiff northeast wind - two conditions that don't usually cohabitate at Pt. Pinos. After a few hours the fog burned off and the wind dropped, but if you look at our loon numbers for the day, it's pretty evident that the damage was done... fog aside, morning visibility was poor: there has been more distortion on the "outer line" area of the horizon than I remember there being in my previous seasons. Is it related to the ongoing high pressure, which has made California news for blocking the expected winter storms? The temperature? Swell was moderate, the afternoon was sunny, and afternoon visibility was good. At the outer buoy, the wind at dawn was 15.5 knots from the NE. It built to 19.4 knots NE (1000), dropped to 4 knots NNE (1500), and switched to NW at sunset. Pressure at dawn was 30.06; it rose to 30.11 during mid-morning but was back down to 30.06 at sunset.

Birds: In my experience, persistent high pressure does not drive big migration events. We did have a higher volume of Surf Scoters today (545), but all other fronts were very quiet: 306 Common Murres and 9 Rhinoceros Auklets; 47 Red-throated and 391 Pacific Loons. We had a late Elegant Tern, and, a couple times in late morning, we caught glimpses of a Black-footed Albatross cartwheeling across the horizon! We did not see any Black-vented Shearwaters today, but they were pretty consistent on the prior two days, and I bet they'll continue to be somewhat regular.

The extended forecast model I like to look at, Tropical Tidbits, is currently showing the high pressure to outlast the 2025 Seawatch season. Will the Pacific Loon flight's biggest push be post-Seawatch? I sure hope not!

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/438013