Rain or shine, bird counters are stationed at Point Pinos in Pacific Grove.

Celia Jiménez here, thinking about birds. Monterey County is one of the best places in California and the country for observing scores of birds every year, thanks to its diverse habitats, ranging from grasslands and peaks to shores and sloughs. 

In this week's edition of the Weekly, my colleague Katie Rodriguez spoke with Alison Vilag, the bird counter hired by the Audubon Society as part of their Seawatch program, tracking the migration passing through Point Pinos in Pacific Grove.

Just like we may come across birds, we sometimes find stories by chance. Rodriguez told me she learned about this story when she attended a bonfire, piquing her interest. 

Armed with binoculars and counting mechanisms, a bird counter’s job is to look at the sky, identifying and counting the birds that are passing by, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands. 

“It is humbling to stand out there and just have birds everywhere, and realize that you’re the person that’s supposed to identify them and put them into numbers,” Vilag told Rodriguez. 

In this story, Rodriguez brings us into her world, sharing what it's like to prepare for such a job, which has her out at Point Pinos for six weeks, six days a week, from sunrise to sunset. She also shares what motivates her to do this job, and how she stays focused. 

“There was a counter the year before me that had almost 100,000 Pacific loons go by in a single hour,” Vilag told Rodriguez. “That’s honestly part of what’s kept me coming back, hoping to see a Pacific loon flight of that magnitude someday, because I just can’t imagine what it would be like.”

From now until Dec. 15, you can spot the birds—and the bird counters doing their work, sharing insight into what species they are observing—at Point Pinos in Pacific Grove.