November 26

Weather: This morning began, like yesterday, with a stiff wind from the northeast. For several hours, I conducted the count from the lee side of the green concrete structure, to diminish tripod shake and to enhance comfort. This is the first time this season I've had to do that, and I'm glad it's taken this long--in 2022 & 2023, I recall spending quite a bit of time on the lee side of the green concrete... by late morning, it was fairly calm, and the wind did not pick up for the remainder of the day. It was clear, visibility was good, and the swell was minimal. At the outer buoy, wind at sunrise was NNE at 15.5 knots; it switched to WNW 8 knots at 1500; pressure at sunrise was 30.16; it rose to 30.22 at 0900, then dropped to 30.13 at the count's end.

Birds: It was a quiet day, which is not surprising given the wind speed and direction. On the waterfowl front, 2 Greater White-fronted Geese, our season's first, were a fun flyby; we had just 293 Surf Scoters today. (Our season total for Surf Scoter is now over 53,000--well within the range of what's expected!). For alcids, we had 23 Rhinoceros Auklets, 510 Common Murres, and 2 Ancient Murrelets. For loons, 277 Red-throats and 1629 Pacifics. Fulmar numbers are dwindling, but we did have our first Pink-footed Shearwater in a few days...

2 late Barn Swallows were, perhaps, the most interesting non-seabird.

I think the loon flight is going to pick up considerably over the next few days. To me, there's no obvious day the peak will fall on, but I do think we'll have some nice thousand+ hours on Friday and Saturday mornings. Peak loon migration is one of the best parts of seawatching at Pt. Pinos; it's definitely worth getting up for :)

-Alison Vilag

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/tripreport/436191