2025 Seawatch - Nov 3

Weather: This morning started, again, with fog--we could not see to the buoy. The fog lingered for most of the morning, though by mid-morning we were consistently seeing to the buoy and by afternoon we were able to see Loma and the stacks at Moss Landing, and it even got sunny. It was fairly calm at Pt. Pinos itself; at the outer buoy at dawn, winds were WSW at 8 knots and remained westerly and <8 knots over the course of the day. Pressure was 30.06 at dawn, rising to 30.14 at 1100, then falling to 30.05 by the count's end .

Birds: It was a fairly slow day, but thanks to a late-afternoon look at a COCOS BOOBY (a GOOD look, by Seawatch standards, and a lifer for at least one of our great volunteers!), it didn't feel like a quiet day. Crazy how just one bird can bring an adrenaline rush that becomes the dominant flavor of the day. We had 645 SURF SCOTERS and 1 BLACK SCOTER--a quiet scoter day. We had 3 RHINOCEROS AUKLETS, 1 MARBLED MURRELET, 1 PIGEON GUILLEMOT, and 227 COMMON MURRES. 2 PARASITIC JAEGERS were fun! On the loon front, we had 17 RED-THROATS, 98 PACIFICS, and 32 COMMONS. Tubenoses were sparse: 10 fulmars, 3 Sooties, 1 Short-tailed Shearwater. We had ample opportunity to laugh at the cranky Heermann's Gull flock that kept complaining about wet feet, compliments of the big full moon tide. And Kai and I heard, just once in the afternoon, an intriguing passerine high overhead that sounded wagtaily (White or possibly Gray). There was a lot of background noise, and I wouldn't put money on it, but it was very interesting.

-Alison Vilag

eBird checklist - https://ebird.org/tripreport/429313