December 10

Weather: At Pt. Pinos, the wind had east in it all day, but fortunately, the wind was not too severe. Swell was moderate, visibility was quite good, and it was sunny. At the outer buoy, the wind at dawn was NNE ~12 knots. It fell to ~8 knots at noon, switched to NW ~8 knots at 1300. Pressure continues to be high: 30.15 at dawn, 30.07 at sunset. The monotony of the weather looks like it will continue until the count season ends on December 15th.

Birds: I think my favorite birds today were a gorgeous DARK Pom jaeger with beautiful silver wingflashes--perhaps the darkest Pom I've seen at Seawatch, and 1 of 2 Poms that came by today. Also a favorite: a "seawatch-close" Black-footed Albatross (on the far side of the buoy, but closer to the buoy than to the horizon). It did some splendid arcs and was oohed and ahhed over by everyone present. A flock of 15 Greater White-fronted Geese flying towards Santa Cruz was, perhaps, the largest flock of this species I've seen migrating past Seawatch.

Only 44 Surf Scoters, 33 Red-throated Loons, and 425 Pacific Loons today; Ancient Murrelets made a good showing--46--but Common Murres (426) and Rhinoceros Auklets (2) were quite scarce.

Interestingly, over the course of the day, we had 14 Barn Swallows cruise past Pt. Pinos today, all flying NNE across the bay--it seems to be quite a few for this late in the season.

I mentioned that CBS news came out for king tide last week, and that I didn't do a very good job talking about king tides. Apparently, I did a great job talking about Seawatch though, because Scott from CBS came back today to do a piece on Seawatch. It should air relatively soon, so stay tuned! I'm delighted with the press that Seawatch has gotten this year; it seems fitting for the tenth year of a project that collects valuable data--and has also collected a devoted group of Seawatchers.

A big thank you, by the way, to all those who stayed up past their bedtime (or was that just me that stayed up past my bedtime?!) to attend the Monterey Audubon meeting last night. Per Shannon, we had 105 attendees, which might be the biggest audience I've spoken to! It's always a bit unnerving to break in a brand new presentation, which this one was, but whenever I speak for Monterey Audubon I know I'm speaking to a room of friends and that helps so much.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist:https://ebird.org/tripreport/440866