Today flew by at the Seawatch, testament to the good numbers AND the fun birds that passed by.
The morning started with drizzle and a steady flow of high Red-throated Loons. It was quiet enough in regard to wind and surf that we could hear several flocks "quacking" as they passed directly overhead. This is a Seawatch event I look forward to each season--it's not a sound we get to hear often and it always catches me by surprise. Alcids were moving too, though not at the chaotic volumes we've experienced during a few other mornings this week. We had 368 Rhinoceros Auklets and 862 Common Murres (peak hour for both 0700), as well as 2 Pigeon Guillemots and 27 Ancient Murrelets.
The Pacific Loon flight didn't really pick up until the 0800 hour, and there were two major flightlines: large scattered medium-high flocks passing directly in front of the count, and an even more scattered low line cutting the bay somewhat southwest of the buoy (but not the very distant loon line). This line pulsed PALOs for several hours: our biggest hour today was 5585 (0900), and our total daily tally was 14,844. (Our total Red-throated tally was 1426).
Our first super fun bird today was the Black Storm-Petrel that essentially did what yesterday's Black Storm-Petrel did, but in reverse (flying out of the bay instead of into the bay). Not much later, a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel flew into the bay, which was a really fun comparison of storm-petrel flight style while the Black was still fresh in our minds. The Fork-tailed was actually a life bird for Rhoda, and she took a quick bench nap to recover from the excitement. She was actually asleep when I spotted, naked-eye, a black-and-white booby flying over the Point. I yelled something like "THERE'S A NAZCA BOOBY RIGHT OVER THE POINT!". Rhoda woke up. We then confirmed it actually was a Nazca, photographed it, got the word out to area birders, and stayed on the bird (which had roosted on the South Gull Roost rocks) till everyone started to show up. The Nazca didn't just disrupt a nap--it disrupted Thanksgiving grocery shopping, laundry, and apple pie making. It was sleeping on the rocks when we left after sunset.
Other highlights today included 1 White-winged Scoter, 25 Brant, 3 Pomarine Jaegers, 1 Parasitic Jaeger, 6 Elegant Terns, and a handful of Sooty, Short-tailed, and Black-vented Shearwaters.
I'm also happy to report that we have Surf Scoters again. We ended the day with 401, and 170 of those came by during the last hour of the count, so I am hopeful we'll have some sort of a scoter flight tomorrow. (I'm feeling like we might have a good loon flight tomorrow morning too!)
It was overcast and great visibility all day, with drizzle during the first couple hours of the count and again briefly in early afternoon. The wind at the count was <5 knots from the ENE all day; at the outer buoy it was south 6-12 overnight, switching to ENE 4-10 during the first hours of the count, then to WNW <5 knots through the rest of the count. Pressure overnight was 30.10 dropping to 30.07 around sunrise and rising again to 30.11 around sunset.
See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/295951
- Alison Vilag
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