December 4

Weather: At dawn, winds were moderate NE at the Point, and the full moon was glorious as it set into the ocean southwest of Pt. Pinos. Visibility was good, skies were partly cloudy, and the swell was minimal. The wind went more north by mid-morning and dropped off in early afternoon, going a little west in the evening. At the outer buoy, at dawn the wind was 15.5 knots NE. It went NNW at 1300 and was W at ~10 knots at sunset. Pressure at dawn was 30.19; it rose to 30.26 at 1000 and dropped slightly to 30.21 at sunset. These weather anecdotes are probably becoming redundant to read -- a reflection of how redundant they are to experience at Pt. Pinos! A common musing from passers-by this week has been how nice it is I have good weather to be out in. I'd rather have good weather and no birds than bad weather and no birds, but good birds and bad weather is a pretty standard seawatch pairing, and we could use a storm and some good northwest winds to shake things up. Unfortunately, there's still none of that on the horizons...

For the rest of the season, I'll keep expectations low so I can be extra grateful for every moment between now and season's end when the flight isn't a drip-feed. Loon hour today was fun: 775 Pacific Loons (we had 1745 total today and 78 Red-throats); 1100 Common Murres; a sprinkling of Ancient Murrelets; a Black-legged Kittiwake. Outside of loon hour, other highlights included 2 Royal Tern sightings (in morning, one flew out of the bay - perhaps the same individual photographed on rocks at Asilomar; during the sunset hour, one flew back in), occasional horizon Black-footed Albatross, and 2 Marbled Murrelets. We had just 125 Surf Scoters today.

The last hour of the count was highlighted by the very low tide, a beautiful sunset AND a stunning moonrise. Fulmar activity seems highest around dusk and dawn, lately, and I've really been enjoying entering and exiting each day's Seawatch by watching the fulmars wheel, arc, and circle as the sun and the moon punch in, punch out. It is a privilege to stand in one place and experience the passage of time in this manner.

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/438824