Calf Breach at Sunrise - Nov 7

The crescendoing Surf Scoter flight dominated migration at Pt. Pinos today. We're already at over 14,200 for the season, which is just a week in! The daily tally was 4034, with two hours bringing us more than a thousand individuals: 1000 (n=1215 scoters) and 1600 (n=1239 scoters). The most-traveled flight line seemed to be the one that wraps around the coast; however, particularly in late afternoon and early evening we did have a few sizeable flocks that were cutting the bay to the west of Pt. Pinos, which seems to happen more frequently when winds are light, as they were today. The largest flocks were >200 birds, and a few other duck species--Greater and Lesser Scaup and Green-winged Teal--were mixed in. My favorite mixed scoter flock of the day contained 3 female Black Scoters.

Scoters aside, it was a fairly quiet day at the count. We had just 152 Common Murres (and 2 Rhinoceros Auklets), low numbers of tubenoses (a few Sooty Shearwaters and Northern Fulmars and 1 Pink-footed Shearwater, generally quite distant), and the loon flight still hasn't started yet--we logged 152 Red-throats and 74 Pacifics today, as well as 44 Commons.

Around noon, a terrific stream of Heermann's Gulls flowed past the count to a scrum near the buoy. There wasn't a lot happening with the count at the time, so I counted the gulls by 10s and ended up with just over 2700. I only saw one juvenile within this flock, though, and have seen hardly any juveniles since the count started this year.

Two Black-legged Kittiwakes were probably my pick for the avian highlight of the day. However, the best part of today's count was around sunrise, when a humpback and (large) calf breached repeatedly near the buoy. Just seeing this would have been a delight, but light winds and minimal swell meant that the morning was so quiet that we could HEAR the splash. And--we could FEEL the shock wave resonating through the ground where we stood. I was in the company of several dedicated Pt. Pinos seawatchers this morning--people who have witnessed many special happenings here--and we all acknowledged that our morning whalewatching would be something we'd remember forever.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/290883

 -Alison Vilag

3358 Surf Scoters! - Nov 6

The flight at the Seawatch was very enjoyable today. Surf Scoter movement continues at a very high volume: we logged 3358 total today and recorded our first 1000+ hour for the species this season (1165 during the 0600 hour). A few flocks had other waterfowl (scaup, White-winged and Black Scoter) tagging along, and the scoter flight dropped off considerably after 0900. Common Murres were also prominent today, with 2486 tallied and our peak hour (0700) bringing an impressive 1453. Our busiest loon hours today were 0700 and 0800, and we logged 115 Red-throated and 206 Pacific loons. Sooty Shearwaters (n=51) made a decent, albeit distant, showing today and we also had 44 Northern Fulmars and a handful of Pink-footed Shearwaters.

We recorded our first-of-season Tufted Puffin, Pigeon Guillemot, and Red-necked Grebe, and another Wilson's Snipe, 2 Black-legged Kittiwakes, and 8 distant white (Snow or Ross's) geese warrant mention.

On the landbird front, small flocks of American Pipit (12-18) were migrating northeast over water during the first hours of the count: it's quite cool to be scanning for loons and murres and pick out a flock of these little guys bouncing across the bay! On days with lots of pipits, I'm always alert for other small open country birds, and we were rewarded with a Horned Lark that flew right overhead: a new Pt. Pinos bird for me. Other new landbird species for the season included Tree Swallow and Pine Siskin.

However, my favorite sighting today was a sighting that will rank high for the entire season. It was a White-tailed Kite, which we see occasionally from the Seawatch--but behind us, over the golf course. When I first noticed today's kite, it was high and already over the bay beyond the Point, flying northeast on a similar flight line that migrating Cackling Geese travel during fall here. I watched it until it was out-of-sight. Never saw it return--didn't expect it would return. Its approach and execution of the water crossing was similar to what I see in Northern Harriers--confident, determined, direct. This is not a species I've ever seen over big water and I will remember how nonchalantly it took on the water crossing forever.

Weather at the Point today was calm and clear, with decent visibility and moderate swell. There was a light offshore wind this morning, which brought Monterey's rotting anchovy essence all the way to the Seawatch. The outer buoy was registering NW winds 11-17 kt overnight, though these calmed during the day, and the pressure dropped slightly, from 29.90 at count's start to 29.96 at the end.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/290653

 -Alison Vilag

The Surf Scoter flight has started

Today started with dense fog: for the first hour and a half or so, we couldn't even see the tip of Pt. Pinos. As is often the case here, though, when the fog DID lift, we were treated to a stream of close Northern Fulmars and Sooty and Pink-footed shearwaters, as well as a few Pomarine Jaegers, three of which were still sporting their spooners! Per the outer buoy, it was blowing WNW 9-15 kt overnight, so perhaps that plus the fog put these tubenoses close to shore.

It seems safe to now say that the Surf Scoter flight has started: today was the third consecutive thousand+ day (n=2194); the flight today was heaviest in the afternoon, with 487 in the 1400 hour our peak. Tagging along with the scoter flocks were a Northern Shoveler, an American Wigeon, and 2 Black Scoters.

Common Murre and Rhinoceros Auklet were the only alcids recorded today, and it was another respectable murre flight: 812, with the 1200 and 1300 hours being the highest-volume.

Red-throated Loons (175) passed frequently during the mid-morning hours, though I've yet to see a flock of more than 10 individuals yet this season; we also had 177 Pacific Loons.

We had 5 Black-legged Kittiwakes today, all first-cycle and some quite close. Testament to the current anchovy abundance, the number of Elegant Terns remaining in the bay is much higher than it was during the prior two seasons I counted here: I counted 61 today, and the largest flock was 23 individuals.

Weather at the Point today was generally windless and, once the fog lifted, mostly sunny. Whitecaps from the NNW appeared by late afternoon (the outer buoy was registering 11-15 kt), but we didn't actually feel the wind at Pt. Pinos until the count's final hour, when Pink-foots and fulmars made a small sunset showing. The swell was moderate today, and the pressure dropped from 30.13 at sunrise to 30.00 at sunset.

See the full checklist here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/290469

- Alison Vilag