Seawatch Report - Nov 29

We had another day that started with brisk NE winds at the Seawatch, which--as it usually does--means we had another day with a very small loon flight. (212 Red-throats; 245 Pacifics). However, the Nazca Booby stuck around for the fourth consecutive day of its visit, resting on the Pt. Pinos rocks for most of the day except for an early afternoon fishing trip. We lost track of it around 1530, and I'm not sure whether it went out for another foray (there was a ton of feeding activity to the west of the Seawatch) or if it shifted to a rock that was not visible from the Seawatch. When the booby returned from its early afternoon excursion, we picked up on it while it was still quite distant, approaching from the west. It's so fun to watch that bird fly...

The scoter flight was fun again today: 2249 total, and a fairly steady flight all day; the peak hour was 597 at 1000. As with yesterday, many scoter flocks were cutting the bay low and to the west of the count site, but not so distantly these long lines bouncing across the ocean couldn't be appreciated with binoculars (or even the naked eye at times!) from the count site. We also had 2 White-winged Scoters and 28 Green-winged Teal.

Alcid numbers continue to be fairly low: 9 Rhinoceros Auklets, 414 Common Murres (the peak flight for this species being 0700-0900), 1 Marbled Murrelet. Same for tubenoses--just 1 Northern Fulmar today.

Other highlights included 2 Pomarine Jaegers and 2 Band-tailed Pigeons that flew directly overhead at the count site--our first-of-season, which is wildly different than the last few seasons, when large flocks of this species have passed overhead...

The wind today was blowing NNE at ~15.5 knots at sunrise, dropping slightly (to 8 knots) and shifting more northerly in the afternoon. Visibility was good and swell was minimal.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/296747

-Alison Vilag