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

November 26

Weather: This morning began, like yesterday, with a stiff wind from the northeast. For several hours, I conducted the count from the lee side of the green concrete structure, to diminish tripod shake and to enhance comfort. This is the first time this season I've had to do that, and I'm glad it's taken this long--in 2022 & 2023, I recall spending quite a bit of time on the lee side of the green concrete... by late morning, it was fairly calm, and the wind did not pick up for the remainder of the day. It was clear, visibility was good, and the swell was minimal. At the outer buoy, wind at sunrise was NNE at 15.5 knots; it switched to WNW 8 knots at 1500; pressure at sunrise was 30.16; it rose to 30.22 at 0900, then dropped to 30.13 at the count's end.

Birds: It was a quiet day, which is not surprising given the wind speed and direction. On the waterfowl front, 2 Greater White-fronted Geese, our season's first, were a fun flyby; we had just 293 Surf Scoters today. (Our season total for Surf Scoter is now over 53,000--well within the range of what's expected!). For alcids, we had 23 Rhinoceros Auklets, 510 Common Murres, and 2 Ancient Murrelets. For loons, 277 Red-throats and 1629 Pacifics. Fulmar numbers are dwindling, but we did have our first Pink-footed Shearwater in a few days...

2 late Barn Swallows were, perhaps, the most interesting non-seabird.

I think the loon flight is going to pick up considerably over the next few days. To me, there's no obvious day the peak will fall on, but I do think we'll have some nice thousand+ hours on Friday and Saturday mornings. Peak loon migration is one of the best parts of seawatching at Pt. Pinos; it's definitely worth getting up for :)

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/436191