Today's Seawatch was highlighted by a substantial early morning Common Murre flight, 5 late-afternoon Black-legged Kittiwakes, and a nice mid-afternoon pop of murre and loon movement after a rather slow late morning-noon. We tallied 7453 Common Murres heading out of the bay today, with many of these passing in the peak hour of 0700, when, counting by 5s, we tallied 4070. The murre flight settled down by 0900, but picked up again from 1300-1600; we also had 105 Rhinoceros Aukl

Today's seawatch featured a large sunrise Common Murre flight (3487 in the 0700-0800 hour; 3972 total today.) and another steady push of Surf Scoters (2250 total, with steady movement from 0700-1100). The loon flight was more of a trickle today, with 159 Red-throats and 685 Pacifics. Most of our Pacifics (594) came during the 0700 hour and were on the far outer bay-cutting line, while the Red-throats were more evenly distributed from 0700-1100 and passing high in front of the

We had another day that started with brisk NE winds at the Seawatch, which--as it usually does--means we had another day with a very small loon flight. (212 Red-throats; 245 Pacifics). However, the Nazca Booby stuck around for the fourth consecutive day of its visit, resting on the Pt. Pinos rocks for most of the day except for an early afternoon fishing trip. We lost track of it around 1530, and I'm not sure whether it went out for another foray (there was a ton of feeding a

A big Surf Scoter flight and the Nazca Booby that continued for a third day (but had seemingly departed for parts yet unknown by the last hours of the count) highlighted this year's edition of Thanksgiving Seawatch. A lot of passers-by expressed surprise that the count continues on Thanksgiving--but southbound birds don't know it's a holiday, and when you're a migration counter you run on bird time and not human time, which I love. (Last year, 2023, our biggest flight of the

Today's seawatch was highlighted by the Nazca Booby that reappeared during the 1000 hour, perched on the Pt. Pinos rocks until 1300, returned again sometime during the 1400 hour, and was still on the Pt. Pinos rocks when I left somewhat after sunset. Many birders--and many passers-by--got great looks at this great bird today, and I'm glad it's stuck around. The winds today were less favorable than they've been: 7-16 knots ENE in the morning becoming more north and diminishing

Today started with steady rain, but we were prepared: using one tarp, four gator clamps, two tripods, some bungees and paracord, and a hatchback vehicle, Rhoda, Catherine, and I were able to rig a shelter that kept us out of the wind and out of the rain--and still afforded a pretty generous field of view. It was a quality over quantity day: our numbers of "frequent flier" species were low--22 Surf Scoters; 86 Rhinoceros Auklets; 272 Common Murres; 18 Red-throated Loons; 631 P

Another fun day out at the Seawatch. The morning started with somewhat limited (but not terrible) visibility. The alcid flight was benevolent enough to wait until there were a few good sets of eyes at the count, and the bulk of the loon flight was at a low enough altitude that our attention was not horribly divided across the field of view. Today's edition of the alcid flight was weighted more with murres (daily tally 4147) than it was with Rhinos (daily tally 1010), and the

Today's continuing south and moderately strong winds (SE 15-17.5 knots at outer buoy; SSW at 8-9 knots at the count) were the likely culprit for another quiet day at the count. A Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel that briefly appeared from the swells just beneath the count site was a nice afternoon surprise, and an adult Pomarine Jaeger that still had most its "spooners" was the morning's avian treat. We had a pinniped treat, too--a Steller's Sea Lion that had hauled up onto the buoy.

Today was a quiet day at the count, which isn't wholly unwelcome after the big flights and exciting birds we've enjoyed during the last week. The scoter flight has hit another lull, it seems: just 98 Surf (and 1 Black) today. The loon flight was diminished, too: just 501 Red-throats and 92 Pacifics. It's amazing to think back to last Friday--just five days ago--when we had more than 20,000 Pacific Loons. It's a dynamic flight; a dynamic place; and not knowing what each day wi

Another fun day out at the Seawatch! Like yesterday, sunrise itself was tame enough, but a half-hour or so into the count, just like they did yesterday, Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets started pouring out of the bay en masse. We tallied 2509 Rhinoceros Auklets (peak hour 0700, with 1630 recorded) and 4958 Common Murres (peak hour also 0700, with 3200 recorded). Both murres and Rhinoceros Auklets were clicked by 10s during that peak hour but otherwise counted individually

Today was great out at the Seawatch: we had a monstrous alcid flight, a sustained stream of Bonaparte's Gulls departing the bay during some of the morning hours, and (per eBird) the Seawatch's second record of White-winged Dove. The dove flew out high towards the coast, then turned around and flew back, high, towards the golf course. It was a pretty cool sighting, especially since Blake Matheson was out there to share it! Sunrise itself was tame enough, but a half-hour or so

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 fl

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 sl

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 skie

Today's count was quiet, yet enjoyable. The loon flight is gaining momentum, particularly in the case of Red-throated: we tallied 552, mostly in loosely grouped flocks of <15 along the "high line." We had 287 Pacifics and 40 Commons; sunrise-0900 brought the busiest loon hours. We also had a decent Common Murre push during 0700-0900 and ended the day with 612. After the loon flight began to taper, I made a point of clicking through the Bonaparte's Gulls foraging over the bay,

Today was another windless, clear day at the Seawatch. In fact, we were talking about how it felt like there was no weather anywhere nearby. I guess we're all hungry for a good northwest blow to push another run of seabirds into the Bay... Surf Scoters were, once again, the dominant migrant at the count: We tallied 1929, with the busiest part of the flight falling between 0700 and 1000; the peak hour was 0800 (n=636). A good number of today's flocks, like they were yesterday

Weather: Mostly sunny; moderate swell; good visibility; calm at Pt. Pinos, but afternoon westerly winds of 7-13 kt were recorded at the outer buoy. Flight: The Surf Scoter flight continues to build, with 3334 tallied today. The first two hours of the count brought the heaviest movement this morning (733 and 766 scoters, respectively), and, as is typical with this species, the flight picked up again in the evening after dropping off from mid-morning through the afternoon; we r

Moderate onshore winds from the northwest sustained through the night into the early morning, and we woke up excited to see what birds might be streaming out of the bay. Pre-dawn saw a few hundred Common Murres on their way out, as well as a close first-year Black-legged Kittiwake. Brian Sullivan kept an eye on the Common Loon (n=198) line cutting south across the peninsula. These birds flew very high over the Highway One corridor and were silhouetted well against the morning

Weather: Overnight - moderate onshore winds that had calmed by count's start, and light rain that had also ceased by dawn. The first couple hours of the count were encumbered by fog which rendered it impossible to see to the buoy at times. When that cleared, we had a few mostly sunny and mostly windless hours. By 1300 whitecaps were whipping up to our west. When the wind reached us, tubenose detections increased, as did murre and loon flight. The wind built through to sunset,

We couldn’t have asked for a better morning to start off our Seawatch season. We have welcomed Alison Vilag back for a third season of tracking the majestic migration of seabirds. “Somewhat quiet--but very pleasant--start to the 2024 Pt. Pinos Seawatch. Weather: mostly sunny, fairly large swell, light onshore winds. Flight: Cackling Geese were moving prominently today--I logged 464 over the course of the day; all flocks were flying northeast across the bay, as is typical here