Seawatch Report - Dec 4

Pacific loons and common murres

Today was a somewhat diminished version of yesterday's big loon/murre/Bonaparte's showing, but still a very fun day at the Seawatch. The early morning hours (sunrise-0900) were typified by a wide river of Pacific Loons and Common Murres that flowed low and southwest across Monterey Bay. Another treat from today was taking the day's first peek into "The Deep" (that is, west of the Point) around sunrise and immediately seeing the towering, formidable dorsal of a male Orca--which a few of the Seawatch sunrise crew got to see too! We saw orcas once more today, in mid-morning and distant but to the north of Pt. Pinos this time.

We had 9054 Common Murres today, with the peak hour being 6575 (0700), the peak flight happening from sunrise-0900, and a little afternoon push happening around 1200-1400. We also had 54 Rhinoceros Auklets and an absolutely great Ancient Murrelet showing: 285 total today, with 107 during the 0700 hour! We were getting small flocks of 4-12 that would occasionally synchronously land, hard, creating a surprisingly large splash for such small bodies...

We had 441 Red-throated Loons and 12,698 Pacific Loons today, with the peak loon flight occurring from 0700-0900, with some large afternoon hours again during 1300-1500. Our biggest Pacific Loon hour was 6847 at 0700.

On the tubenose front, we were graced with a Black-footed Albatross that we saw five times today. The first time we noticed it, it was way inside the bay, near the stacks at Moss Landing. Eventually, for albatross standards, it came super close to the count--not far outside the buoy--which was really not what I expected on a fairly windless day! We also had 20 Northern Fulmars, 3 Pink-footed Shearwaters and 2 Sooty Shearwaters.

The Surf Scoter flight was quiet today: just 384.

5 American Wigeons, 1 Pomarine Jaeger, and 3 Black-legged Kittiwakes were fun, as was the huge (thousands) Bonaparte's Gull flock that's hung mirage-like on the horizon to the west of Pt. Pinos.

It was essentially windless today at both the count and the outer buoy: <5 knot northeast winds that switched to west (8 knot at the outer buoy; <5 knots at the count) around noon. The wind stayed west but dropped to ~4 knots at the buoy at 1500.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/298111

-Alison Vilag