Seawatch Report - Nov 12, 2026

Today, the south winds started that heralded the incoming storm that is forecast to produce substantial rain and waves of up to 50 feet. (Seawatch forecast expanded to include: boobies, storm-petrels, and suffering). The winds strengthened as the day went on, and by count's end were SSE at 23.3 knots and gusting to 31.1 knots at the outer buoy. Visibility was good, it was partly cloudy, the swell was large, and there was a stunner of a sunset, even though it was empty of Surf Scoter flocks weaving into it.

On a day with strong south winds, we don't expect to see much loon and scoter movement, and our expectations were also our reality. We had just 263 Surf Scoters, 58 Red-throated Loons, 122 Pacific Loons, and 3 Common Loons.

Raptors stole the show today. Karen and I watched a Red-shouldered Hawk successfully take a Black Turnstone, which surprised us both. The hawk came from the cypress across the street, nabbed the turnstone, sat with it on the beach for a quick minute, then flew back across Ocean View, turnstone in talons. Later, when the sunset crew had expanded to include Kai, Jeddy, and Andrew, a pair of Peregrine Falcons tore out to the Point, did a lap (but did no damage -- perhaps it was reconnaissance, or sightseeing, or they were bored and wanted to stir up some shorebirds just because), and tore back towards Monterey. It was super cool to see the pair flying very synchronously in tandem.

THE raptor highlight of the day, however, was a Short-eared Owl. Yesterday, Rita predicted one, and this morning, I had an uncanny feeling that one would appear. Short-eareds are my spark bird and whenever I see one, I take it as a good omen that I'm in the right place. I've seen them now on 4 out of 5 Pinos seasons. When I spotted this one, it was high and far out over the bay, flying southeast towards Monterey. Even in binoculars, I had suspicions, for nothing has the springy, bounding flight that Asio owls do. The spotting scope confirmed these suspicions. I got Kai on the owl, and Kai, a Seawatch hero through and through, got everyone else on the owl. And, at that point in time, "everyone else" included ED YONG. I am still beside myself that we got to share space and share seawatching and share a Short-eared Owl with this person whose work has resonated so deeply with us. Short-eared Owls, good omens, right place, right time.

Other birds:

-2 Rhinoceros Auklets, 5 Cassin's Auklets, 1 Marbled Murrelet, 1 Pigeon Guillemot, 37 Common Murres

-13 Elegant Terns, 2 Royal Terns

-1 Red-necked Grebe

-2 Northern Fulmars, 2 Pink-footed Shearwaters, 94 Black-vented Shearwaterss

-12 Red Crossbills

In addition to the Short-eared Owl, we had a few other first-of-season birds today: A Ruddy Turnstone, a California Scrub-Jay, and a Brown-headed Cowbird. These all are infrequent at Seawatch, though readily found not far away... -Alison Vilag

See the full trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/594732