Seawatch Report - Dec 11

Today was the quietest that I can recall during this season of Seawatch. Nothing was flying in force, but an uptick in Rhinoceros Auklets during the last hour of the count (96--the bulk of the entire day's tally of 179) are making me wonder what tomorrow morning will be like... a nice dark Pomarine Jaeger in the last hour of the count was fun, too.

Surf Scoters continue to trickle by--193 today. The murre flight was very small (267 total), and we had 13 Ancient Murrelets. We did not break triple digits of either Red-throated (55) or Pacific (93) Loons. 5 Northern Fulmars were the only tubenoses detected today.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/300131

-Alison Vilag

Seawatch Report - Dec 10

The flight sure seems to be tapering at the Seawatch: though numbers of pretty much everything were low today, alcid diversity was quite high: we had 192 Common Murres, 6 Rhinoceros Auklets, 9 Marbled Murrelets, 2 Pigeon Guillemots, and 62 Ancient Murrelets.

A late Blue-winged Teal (a point bird, in fact, for me!) was a nice surprise in a flock of Surf Scoters (315 total today). We also had 2 White-winged and 1 Black Scoter.

The loon flight was very quiet today: 56 Red-throats and 27 Pacifics.

On the tubenose front, we had 2 Black-footed Albatross, 6 Northern Fulmars, and 1 Sooty Shearwater.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/300134

-Alison Vilag

Seawatch Report - Dec 9

Despite being a calm day, Black-footed Albatross made a great showing: during the 1000 hour, I did a slow scope scan of the entire horizon and was rewarded with ELEVEN Black-foots between the far southwest and Loma Prieta. Most of these were distant--more apparition than they were albatross--but a few were moderately close. We also had 15 Northern Fulmar, 2 Pink-footed Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater, and 4 Short-tailed Shearwaters.

Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet day. Surf Scoters put on a stronger showing than they have for a few days: 754. Other interesting waterfowl included 2 Gadwall, 2 White-winged Scoters, and a flock of 11 Common Mergansers.

On the alcid front, diversity was good today: we had 3 Rhinoceros Auklets, 2 Marbled Murrelets, 234 Common Murres, and 15 Ancient Murrelets.

The loon flight was small: 104 Red-throats and 206 Pacifics...

Other fun finds from today include 4 Surfbirds, 1 Pomarine Jaeger, 1 Red-necked Grebe, a Northern Harrier (migrating out across the bay to the NE!), 3 Tree and 2 Barn swallows, and a Pine Siskin.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/300136

-Alison Vilag