November 30

Checking in with the morning crew as I arrived a little before noon, everyone was bundled up in puffy jackets with hoods pulled tight. Gloves were donned and rainpants were deflecting the wind. The morning crew had been treated to a chilly morning with a southeast wind - the opposite of what we want for a Seawatch shift! A cold wind blowing birds further away or keeping them down on the water, doesn't necessarily set one up for high counts or rare species. But spirits were cheerful of course, as there are no bad days at Point Pinos, and information about species composition and potential clicker configurations were shared with the afternoon crew. They also told us that they had been seeing little Mola molas (the oddball ocean sunfish species) breaching out of the water at random times when they were scanning with spotting scopes--a fun thing to look out for! But a female Painted Bunting had been found over in Marina by friend of MAS, Steve Rovell, so people wanted to get a move on a go find that lime-green lady. Thanks to the kind homeowners for reporting that bird then allowing us goofy birders to stand around in their driveway! What neighborly and tolerant folks. So grateful.

Luckily for the afternoon team, the winds shifted around to our classic northwest configuration and we were treated to continuing good views of Northern Fulmars, a handful of Black-vented Shearwaters, and another sprinkling of Short-tailed Shearwaters. The show stealer, however, was a massive, shifting seagull scrum that was a constant presence in the nearshore zone, diving and chasing and fighting over anchovies near the surface. Altering from west then east of the Point Pinos rocks then back again, this gull grouping consisted of primarily Heermann's Gulls and Western Gulls, with heaps of California Gulls, a few tens of Short-billed Gulls and Bonaparte's Gulls, as well as a few singles Iceland Gulls, American Herring Gulls and Glaucous-winged Gulls mixed in for good measure. It was an eight-gull afternoon! The curtain of foraging gulls made it hard to pick out our sparsely flying loons and alcids (Common Murre, Rhinoceros Auklet, Marbled Murrelet, and Ancient Murrelet all made low-to-the-water flybies at various points of the afternoon). Sneaky Surf Scoters picked up the pace for the last two checklists of the day--some were streaming past behind the counters and way up high in the sky, heading southwest over the golf course! We then had to watch our backs as well as the front.

Overall another excellent day counting birds at Point Pinos and chatting with folks walking by and sharing the splendor of The Point. Thanks to all who came out to keep us company and show support. Alison's back on duty tomorrow!

- Amanda Preece

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/437595

November 28

Weather: At dawn, the wind had a fair amount of east in it, but it was calmer than it's been for the last three mornings. The wind dropped off pretty quickly, and we started feeling it on the west side of our faces by early afternoon. By evening winds were light, but west. Swell started out minimal but built over the course of the day; visibility was good until the winds switched to west and then it got a little hazy. At the outer buoy, the wind at dawn was NNE at ~8 knots. It switched to W at 1200, building to 17.5 knots W at sunset. Pressure at sunrise was 30.10; by sunset it had fallen to 30.03

Birds: We expected a nice loon flight this morning, and we got one! 5175 Pacific Loons passed during the 0700-0800 Loon Hour and were evenly distributed between the mid-outer line and the flightline that goes directly past Pt. Pinos. As is often the case when winds shift west at Pinos, the loon flight continued until about 1500; tallies at day's end were 9758 Pacifics and 360 Red-throats.

The alcid flight was fun today - we had 1954 Common Murres (peak hour 444, Loon Hour); 689 Rhinoceros Auklets (peak was 266 during the count's last hour), and had 38 Ancient Murrelets and 2 Cassin's Auklets. We got word that a whalewatching boat had found a Tufted Puffin not far from Seawatch this afternoon, and though we didn't see it fly past Seawatch, we had fun looking for it. Maybe tomorrow...

Tubenoses diversified a bit today: a close Black-vented Shearwater came by this afternoon - the season's first. This species was numerous at Seawatch in 2022 and 2023 and scarce last year. We had a Sooty Shearwater near sunset, and plenty of Northern Fulmars.

3 Pomarine Jaegers and a Black-legged Kittiwake were fun, as were high flocks of Band-tailed Pigeons that looked like glitter in the early morning sun. The scoter flight is still quite dry: 103 was all we counted today.

Tomorrow's forecast, coupled with the persistent loon flight, the final-hour push of Rhinoceros Auklets, and a sunset Sooty Shearwater make me hopeful for tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I guess we'll find out!

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/436730

Nov 27 - Thanksgiving

Weather: This is the third consecutive day that, upon going to bed, I've expected light winds in the morning and woken to brisk northeast winds, ugh! Fortunately they were lighter than the prior two days and died off by late morning. It was partly cloudy with minimal swell and good visibility at the Seawatch today. At the outer buoy, it was blowing 15.5 knots from the NE at dawn. It switched to NNW at 1200 (dropping to ~10 knots). At dawn pressure, was 30.13, it dropped to 30.08 at sunset.

Birds: Any day you see an albatross is a good day, so today was a good day. The albatross, a Black-footed, was arcing around for 10 minutes or so well to the SW of Pt. Pinos. It was distant, but not so distant that we couldn't appreciate all the things that make an albatross an albatross, and it was a much-anticipated and much-deserved lifer for Madison!

Despite the northeast winds, we had the best Loon Hour we've had in several days--2517 Pacifics, mostly on the outer line. Our daily tally: 261 Red-throats, 2892 Pacifics.

The volume of scoters (180 Surf) and alcids (112 Rhino Auklets, 349 Common Murres, 2 Marbled Murrelets, 4 Ancient Murrelets) was just a trickle today.

We did have a huge scrum for several hours just off Pt. Pinos - hundreds of California Gulls, with good numbers of Heermann's and Western and a sprinkling of Bonaparte's, Short-billed, Herring, Glaucous-winged, and Thayer's. Thanksgiving dinner across the species...including for the bruiser of a Pomarine Jaeger that went gull-to-gull demanding tribute.

Other birds of note: A Downy Woodpecker - my first from Seawatch (and the first for Seawatch's eBird hotspot, though there are a few for the Pt. Pinos general hotspot). 659 Brown Pelicans flew out of the bay during the sunset hour, presumably full of baitfish. A Brown Pelican consumes up to 4 pounds of fish per day; imagining the biomass of the scrum that supplied nourishment to so many pelicans (and gulls, cormorants, and Risso's dolphins) really made me, on this day of intentional gratitude, appreciate the life Monterey Bay sustains.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/436435