Since you have a long-term perspective and have been seawatching longer than perhaps anyone else in the county. Would you say that this Black-vent incursion is the biggest ever you have seen? There were numbers in Monterey Bay last week that suggested that a huge part of the world population of this bird is now in our area, just like your observation. Estimates range from 46,000 to 120,000 pairs of this species, as such your observation may mean that half the breeding population (using the lower estimate) is in San Mateo right now, that is amazing. But I don’t have a handle on if it has happened like this before. I don’t know what it was like during the 81-82 El Niño.
From: <peninsula-birding...> <peninsula-birding...> On Behalf Of Ronald- Thorn via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2026 2:49 PM
To: Peninsula Birding <peninsula-birding...>
Subject: [pen-bird] Moss Beach seawatch 10/14
Yesterday, I did a seawatch from Moss Beach. I was amazed in the large feeding frenzies spread out over the water. During the three hour seawatch is a partial list of what
was noted. No surprise that the dominant species were the Black-vented Shearwaters. I was doing one minute counts, as the Black-vented Shearwaters were moving
north through the feeding frenzies. A tally of ( 48,460 ) Black-vented Shearwaters. A single Sooty Shearwater was all I could note. Sooty Shearwaters have been scarce
in numbers south to Monterey County looking at seawatch reports from others. Southbound migrants were Surf Scoter ( 25 ), Red-necked Grebe ( 1 ), Red-throated
Loon ( 9 ), Pacific Loon ( 6 ). There was a high of ( 42 ) Parasitic Jaegers southbound. A single Pomarine Jaeger. A very low number of only ( 4 ) Common Murres.
