Monterey State Beach -- Sand City Beach is open to the public. There are three access points in Sand City for drivers, but the entire beach and trails on the adjacent over-looking bluffs provide a wide range of spots from which to seawatch. Seawatching here is primarily working through the flocks of hundreds of Surf Scoters in late fall through early spring for rarer scoters, other sea-ducks, grebes, loons, and alcids.

The central access point is the west end of Tioga Avenue in Sand City. The foot of this road goes steeply downhill to an overlook; you'll have to turn around (no parking at the end) and park facing uphill on the south side of the road. You can then scope from the no-parking-areas overlooking the beach, or from crumbling bluff trails going either north or south.

The southern access point is the west end of West Bay Avenue, which is off Sand Dunes Drive, south of Tioga Avenue or north from the parking lot of Seaside State Beach (in a separate Hotspot; the City boundaries between Seaside and Sand City divide these two sea-watching hotspots into separate stand-alone Hotspots). On West Bay, there is parking of both sides of the road but none at the end of the short street. There is, however, a wide walking trail (an old road) that goes north from the end of West Bay and takes you almost to the the Tioga Avenue viewpoint. There are scoters scattered beyond the surf over the entire area.

The nothern access point is parking near the west end of Playa Avenue, which divides a huge shopping center, but, like Tioga Ave, Playa Avenue has a stop-light to turn west when driving on Del Monte Avenue in Sand City. Then take the paved path under Highway 1 to a warren of trails and jogging paths that allow a birder to reach multiple overlooks of the beach and scoter flocks just offshore. Occasionally a wandering Buroowing Owl may take up winter residence in these dunes.

The beach attracts sandy-shore waders -- Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, Sanderlings, Willet -- in season (July-April), plus a a variety of gulls. Heermann's Gulls are generally present in summer; Glaucous-winged, Herring, Iceland (Thayer's), Short-billed and the occasional Ring-billed are among the abundant Western and California Gulls in winter. Osprey or Peregrine Falcon may fly by.

In spring and summer, the endangered Snowy Plover nests on Sand City Beach (areas may be fenced or closed for plovers). 

Birds sought among the Surf Scoter and grebe flocks include White-winged and Black Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck (rare), Harlequin Duck (rare); Clark's Grebe among the more abundant Western Grebes; Red-necked Grebe; and the three "usual" winter loons. Common Murre is regular in winter, as are a few Pigeon Guillemot in summer. Rarer alcids sometimes seen include Rhinoceros Auklet, and Marbled or Ancient Murrelet (both rare).