Date: 11/4/25 6:56 am From: Alfred Hochstaedter <fredhochstaedter...> Subject: [MBBIRDS] Pt Pinos Seawatch Summaries are a Delight to Read
Good morning! Most of us know that Monterey Audubon’s Seawatch has started,
and that Alison Vilag, our expert seabird counter, is back at Pt Pinos
monitoring loons, scoters, and everything else that flies by the point.
What everybody might not know is that Alison is also a skilled and
evocative writer. She summarizes each day in a short, three-sips-of-coffee
length of prose that is delightful to read. I like to start my day by
enjoying them with my first cup of coffee.
Here’s an excerpt for Nov 1, the first day of the Seawatch season:
“SURF SCOTERS were moving in good numbers today: we had 1442, with the
flight evenly distributed across the day till 1500 when it began to drop
off. We also had 2 WHITE-WINGED and 3 BLACK SCOTERS--all these, save one
Black Scoter by itself, were mixed with Surf flocks. This is the first
opening day of my four (!) seasons that's brought a thousand+ scoter day;
curious how many went by in October, as during the afternoon of October 28
I tallied 3300 in just a couple hours... The only other waterfowl was a
single BRANT, ironically smack dab in the middle of a flock of Brandt's
Cormorants--Brant with the Brandt's... “
