Seawatch Report - Nov 11

Today was the wettest day of the season so far: It rained more than it didn't between 0700-1300, and visibility was hindered. Around sunrise, before the rain started, we had a nice push of Rhinoceros Auklets (daily total: 203), and the busiest part of the day's Common Murre flight (daily total: 289). The, the rain set in, and was perhaps the biggest culprit in our very slow Surf Scoter (n=64), Red-throated (n=117), and Pacific (n=38) Loon totals.

But the day wasn't a total slog! After the rain moved out, little flocks of Brant moved in (n=141), like they often do after wet and foggy systems; I enjoyed watching Parasitic (6) and Pomarine (1) Jaegers have their way with the Bonaparte's Gulls (my largest single scan today=636) and Elegant Terns (daily total=131) that are still very numerous in the Bay; Kai spotted our season's first Ruddy Turnstone; I saw three Pink-footed Shearwaters at about buoy distance--the closest I've had in several days.

The winds today were light S to light NW at the count site today; at the outer buoy there were light NE switching to 13 kt S from 0800-100, then dropping and shifting W 7-11 kt from 1400 till count's end. Pressure rose from 30.01 overnight to 30.07 by count's close.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S202175256

 -Alison Vilag