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

December 7

The morning broke cold with a wind blowing from the east. Loon hour delivered with 1819 Pacific Loons and 852 Common Murres in the 7:00am hour. These birds represented the majority of loons and murres for the day, with only 1346 more loons and 414 murres flying past the point throughout the rest of the day. Pacific loons dominated throughout the day, with only 59 Red-throated Loons counted during the day.

Additional morning highlights included a White-winged Scoter joining the first big scoter flock of the day, and a pair of Black Scoters flying together out of the Bay. A Black-legged Kittiwake and a Black-footed Albatross also appeared during the morning. The cold east wind kept up nearly the entire morning, not letting up until the 11:00 am hour.

During the noon hour, the wind died down and the temperatures warmed up, allowing the afternoon crew to enjoy pleasant seawatching conditions. Predictably, loon and migrating pelagic bird abundance dropped off significantly for the afternoon. As the swell decreased, however, conditions for murrelet viewing increased markedly. Fifteen Ancient Murrelets were seen in the 3:00 pm hour, including at least three sitting on the water in nice light just past the giant raft of sea otters, enabling prolonged views and close study. Other afternoon highlights included a couple of close-in jaegers, one a Parasitic, and the other a dark-morph Pomarine.

In a manner similar to last Sunday, a giant gull scrum developed over an apparent school of anchovies rising close to the surface just off the point. We could see the gulls stream in from all directions. California, Glaucous-winged, and Short-billed Gulls were all present in numbers, along with a smattering of American Herring and Iceland. Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, and a Great Blue Heron waited for the leftovers on the tidepool rocks.

-Fred Hochstaedter

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/439878