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

Most of our conservation projects have a neat logo associated with them. We use these in written reports, graphics, and to make stickers and swag. We're excited to reveal the new Point Pinos Seawatch logo, created by local artist, naturalist, and birder Morgan Lewis of Ripple in the Wild. The logo features our two main target species that are monitored through this conservation project: the Surf Scoter and Pacific Loon. Although 223 species have been identified by our counter