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

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