Seawatch Report - Nov 11, 2026

Today was the warmest that I can remember ever being at Seawatch -- a memory that I am sure to be revisiting next week, when the storms hit... right now, the only dry day in the 10-day forecast is my day off, Saturday; honestly, I'd rather have a long run of rain than of sunny skies, high pressure, and light wind. Good seabirding happens during bad weather. At sunrise today at the outer buoy the wind was coming from the NE at 7.8 knots. It went NW 7.8 at 10, dropping to 4 knots at noon and staying light and variable through to sunset. Pressure started at 30.04 and rose to 30.08 at 9:30 AM; then it dropped and was 29.94 at sunset--the lowest pressure reading since this year's Seawatch started. Pressure drops can also make for interesting seabirding... Visibility was good, the swell was moderate, it was sunny, and the water temperature was 67.5.

Migration was quiet today. Our Surf Scoter total (172) was less in number than some of the individual flocks we see when the scoters are peaking; our triple-digit loon hour continues to play hard-to-get, though we're being teased with some nice Pacific flocks. Loon totals today: 95 Red-throats, 409 Pacifics, 5 Commons. We continue to see very low numbers of alcids--something I do not expect to change this season--and the Black-vented Shearwaters, who do better with warm water than Common Murres do--continued to be our most prominent species; we clicked 970 today.

The Merlins put on a grand show today (one was stooping over a boat out near the buoy repeatedly around sunrise--was it chasing a warbler? a pipit?) And an adult Golden Eagle flying out over water towards Santa Cruz was a very nice afternoon pick-me-up. If you take the balmy conditions from the equation, the raptors today were reminiscent of migration along Lake Superior; Merlin death squads and Golden Eagle water crossings are typical encounters at migration watches there. Only thing missing is a Short-eared Owl; maybe there's one in the pipeline...

Also today:

-3 Brant

-1 Wilson's Snipe (over the golf course, as per usual)

-1 Red Phalarope

-2 Pomarine Jaegers

-2 Rhinoceros Auklets, 1 Cassin's Auklet, 1 Marbled Murrelet, and 50 Common Murres

-21 Elegant and 5 Royal Terns

-1 Horned and 2 Red-necked Grebes -Alison Vilag

See the full trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/594326