Seawatch Report - Dec 5

Today was a pretty standard early-December day at the Seawatch, save for one small detail: a late-morning tsunami warning that led us to decide to suspend the count for roughly 45 minutes in case there actually was a tsunami. No tsunami.

The murre and the loon flights were the most prominent movements at the Seawatch today. We had 1934 Common Murres (peak flight 0700-0900), 52 Rhinoceros Auklets, and 67 Ancient Murrelets. Peak Pacific Loon movement occurred during the 0800 hour, when we tallied 1900; we ended up with 4020 Pacifics today and 326 Red-throats.

The Surf Scoter flight was light today--just 237. We had 4 Black-footed Albatross sightings which involved at least two individuals, as well as 34 Northern Fulmars and 2 Pink-footed Shearwaters.

The Bonaparte's Gull flock that's been lingering on the horizon for the past few days continues to bring me much joy--today, I caught a glimpse of the flock, up high and packed tightly. Suddenly, they started descending for the water, dropping like a meteor shower. It was great.

It was another calm day: Light winds (typically <5 knots) at both the outer buoy and the Point that went west around noon and stayed west until the count's close. Partly cloudy, no precipitation, minimal swell, good visibility...

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/298399

-Alison Vilag