Seawatch Report - Nov 12

This was our first (combined) 1000+ loon flight of this count season. It's pretty exciting to realize that this is just the start, and that a week or so from now, we should be watching 1000+ loon HOURS in the early mornings at Seawatch. Most of the loon traffic today was occurring on the "high line"--flying out of the bay past Pt. Pinos at a high altitude, rather than cutting across west of the Point.

Red-throated Loons were the most numerous (total=312) today. The biggest flight was from sunrise-0900, the peak hour 0700 (312). We also had 445 Pacific Loons today, with the peak hour being 0700 (250). Common Loons (13) were, as is typical, the least common at the Seawatch today.

The Surf Scoter flight remains a trickle, with the daily total being just 127. I'm confident, however, that we've got some big flights of this species waiting for us as the season progresses. 14 Brant and 14 Mallards were the only other migratory waterfowl we saw today.

We had some busy hours of alcid movement at the count today, tallying 169 Rhinoceros Auklets and 1958 Common Murres. Peak movement occurred from sunrise-0800, with another little pop in late morning-noon. The biggest murre hour today was 0700. (total: 780).

Tubenoses also picked up a bit today: I saw our first-of-season Short-tailed Shearwater, and also had 7 Pink-foots, 2 Black-vents, a Sooty, and 38 Northern Fulmars.

The bay is still full of Bonaparte's Gulls. Every day, I make a point of dedicating a long, full scope sweep to counting (individually and by 10s when necessary) the flocks. Today, that scan divulged 1642 Bonaparte's, and a lot of the ones close enough to see were 1st-cycle. The age composition seems to vary from day to day with these birds, which I find interesting. Elegant Terns (daily total: 33) are still fairly numerous, which has been a treat for me this season. My prior two years they'd mostly gone by the time the count started, but it seems like the anchovies have kept them around this time. We also had 4 Pomarine Jaegers today.

Weather at the outer buoy was overnight NNE winds 4-6 kt which built to 6-8 kt in the morning. Around noon the winds switched to west, 6-8 kt. At the Point, the wind was light east to light NW in the afternoon, topping out around 4 kt. We also had an hour of dense fog during the afternoon.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/292291

 -Alison Vilag

Seawatch Report - Nov 11

Today was the wettest day of the season so far: It rained more than it didn't between 0700-1300, and visibility was hindered. Around sunrise, before the rain started, we had a nice push of Rhinoceros Auklets (daily total: 203), and the busiest part of the day's Common Murre flight (daily total: 289). The, the rain set in, and was perhaps the biggest culprit in our very slow Surf Scoter (n=64), Red-throated (n=117), and Pacific (n=38) Loon totals.

But the day wasn't a total slog! After the rain moved out, little flocks of Brant moved in (n=141), like they often do after wet and foggy systems; I enjoyed watching Parasitic (6) and Pomarine (1) Jaegers have their way with the Bonaparte's Gulls (my largest single scan today=636) and Elegant Terns (daily total=131) that are still very numerous in the Bay; Kai spotted our season's first Ruddy Turnstone; I saw three Pink-footed Shearwaters at about buoy distance--the closest I've had in several days.

The winds today were light S to light NW at the count site today; at the outer buoy there were light NE switching to 13 kt S from 0800-100, then dropping and shifting W 7-11 kt from 1400 till count's end. Pressure rose from 30.01 overnight to 30.07 by count's close.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S202175256

 -Alison Vilag

Seawatch Report - Nov 10

White-faced Ibis flying over the lighthouse

Today was another quiet, warm, and windless day at Point Pinos. The lack of Surf Scoters was particularly noticeable given the consistent flights we've had over the past week - we counted less than 200 birds for the whole day. We only count birds exiting the bay (headed south on their migration), and noticed at least as many birds (if not more!) heading into the bay. We speculated that they could be anticipating the inclement weather forecasted for November 11.

The clear skies and flat seas meant we had an exceptional view across the bay. The morning haze lifted to reveal several hundred Bonaparte's Gulls across every part of the bay. These flocks eventually scattered as the sun rose higher. The large number of small gulls brought in a few jaegers -the Heermann's Gulls were also heavily engaged in kleptoparasitism, and chases occurred frequently.

The loon flight was a little hectic in the morning - several large flocks passed high above the bay, with a smaller line of single loons flying low over the water. We volunteer observers did our best to match the counting quality that Alison demonstrates everyday - it is not an easy job!

A White-faced Ibis appeared in the late afternoon and was the highlight of our day. First spotted far out over the water, it eventually appeared over land and seemed to land at Crespi Pond out of view. However, over the course of a half-hour we observed it making a few laps over the point, passing over the lighthouse. We presumed it was repeatedly flushed by golfers.

The calm conditions also meant we were able to observe several pods of Risso's dolphins. These pods exhibited various levels of activity, with some repeatedly breaching out of the water, and others dozing at the surface.

Thank you to all the volunteer observers and docents that came out to support Alison's day off! The marathon brought in many tourists and we were able to chat with and educate many curious passersby.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/291934

- Kai Russell