Seawatch Report - Nov 10

White-faced Ibis flying over the lighthouse

Today was another quiet, warm, and windless day at Point Pinos. The lack of Surf Scoters was particularly noticeable given the consistent flights we've had over the past week - we counted less than 200 birds for the whole day. We only count birds exiting the bay (headed south on their migration), and noticed at least as many birds (if not more!) heading into the bay. We speculated that they could be anticipating the inclement weather forecasted for November 11.

The clear skies and flat seas meant we had an exceptional view across the bay. The morning haze lifted to reveal several hundred Bonaparte's Gulls across every part of the bay. These flocks eventually scattered as the sun rose higher. The large number of small gulls brought in a few jaegers -the Heermann's Gulls were also heavily engaged in kleptoparasitism, and chases occurred frequently.

The loon flight was a little hectic in the morning - several large flocks passed high above the bay, with a smaller line of single loons flying low over the water. We volunteer observers did our best to match the counting quality that Alison demonstrates everyday - it is not an easy job!

A White-faced Ibis appeared in the late afternoon and was the highlight of our day. First spotted far out over the water, it eventually appeared over land and seemed to land at Crespi Pond out of view. However, over the course of a half-hour we observed it making a few laps over the point, passing over the lighthouse. We presumed it was repeatedly flushed by golfers.

The calm conditions also meant we were able to observe several pods of Risso's dolphins. These pods exhibited various levels of activity, with some repeatedly breaching out of the water, and others dozing at the surface.

Thank you to all the volunteer observers and docents that came out to support Alison's day off! The marathon brought in many tourists and we were able to chat with and educate many curious passersby.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/291934

- Kai Russell

Seawatch Report - Nov 9

Today's count was quiet, yet enjoyable. The loon flight is gaining momentum, particularly in the case of Red-throated: we tallied 552, mostly in loosely grouped flocks of <15 along the "high line." We had 287 Pacifics and 40 Commons; sunrise-0900 brought the busiest loon hours. We also had a decent Common Murre push during 0700-0900 and ended the day with 612.

After the loon flight began to taper, I made a point of clicking through the Bonaparte's Gulls foraging over the bay, and got 1811 on one continuous scan over the entire field of view. (Fred was keeping an eye on the highline so this endeavor wouldn't result in missed scoters, loons, etc...). Elegant Terns (n=78) were also relatively numerous today, we had a late-afternoon Black-legged Kittiwake, and, perhaps unsurprisingly given the amount of potential small larid victims, we also had 2 Pomarine and 2 Parasitic Jaegers, the latter of which were dogfighting each other as they passed the point...

Today's wind was either light or had a fair amount of east in it; as expected on these conditions, tubenose sightings were few and distant. We logged Northern Fulmar and Sooty and Pink-footed shearwaters today.

Other sightings that merit mention today include our first-of-season Gadwall (n=3) and a Red-necked Grebe.

Weather today was calm and partly cloudy, except for 45 minutes or so in the early afternoon when thick fog settled on the Point.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/291383

 -Alison Vilag

Seawatch Report - Nov 8

Today was another windless, clear day at the Seawatch. In fact, we were talking about how it felt like there was no weather anywhere nearby. I guess we're all hungry for a good northwest blow to push another run of seabirds into the Bay...

Surf Scoters were, once again, the dominant migrant at the count: We tallied 1929, with the busiest part of the flight falling between 0700 and 1000; the peak hour was 0800 (n=636). A good number of today's flocks, like they were yesterday (another calm day), were cutting across the Bay to the southwest of Pt. Pinos. I also had a Redhead this morning--our first of the season for this scarce (but annually recorded) duck.

Alcids and tubenoses were sparse today. We had single digits of Rhinoceros Auklets and just 147 Common Murres, despite the minimal swell creating optimal conditions for detecting the "smallcids" (auklets, murrelets). The only non-fulmar tubenose was a single Sooty Shearwater.

There were an incredible amount of Bonaparte's Gulls foraging over the bay today; my highest single-scan count yielded 444, and of the birds near enough to age, it seemed like the ration of adults to juveniles was fairly even.

The loon flight is slowly picking up: we had 403 Red-throats, 112 Pacifics, and 18 Commons today; peak loon hour was 0800-0900. Also, looking at the season so far, we hit the thousand mark for both RTLO (1026) and PALO (1036) today. There was a small movement of RTLO and PALO flying into the bay during the late afternoon. As this flightline is quite distant and north of the count, these loons were likely coming in off the ocean and were not included in the day's tally, as we only record loons heading out of the bay.

The wind at the outer buoy was calm last night and built to ~11 kt from the NNE this morning, dropping and switching to light west during the afternoon. It was calm at the count site all day. The pressure dropped from 30.18 overnight to 30.04 at count's end. Swell was minimal and visibility was uninhibited, albeit a bit smoky.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/291087

 -Alison Vilag