Site:         Hazel Bazemore County Park (Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX)
Counter:      Joel Simon
Date:         September 1-3, 1997

                                          (8/15/97 forward)
Species             9/01    9/02    9/03    Watch to Date
Black vulture         18      0       0        23
Turkey vulture        0       0       0        1
Osprey                0       0       0        2
Swallow-tail kite     0       0       0        6
Miss. kite            14      4       9        2,233
Northern harrier      0       0       0        1
Sharp-shin hawk       3       1       0        5
Cooper's hawk         0       0       0        8
Red-shoulder hawk     0       0       3        5
Broadwing hawk        1       0       0        262
Swainson's hawk       9       6       5        39
White-tail hawk       0       0       0        1
Red-tail hawk         0       0       0        3
Unk accipiter         0       0       0        2
Unk. buteo            1       1       0        3
Unk. raptor           1       0       0        7
Total to date:                                 2,601

Other notable species:
Anhingas              140     4       0

------------------------------------------------------------------

OFF-SITE Reports:  One Harlan RTHA on Mustang Island half mile south
of the riding stables (between Port Aransas and Padre Island)
on 09-03-97. One peregrine falcon on 08-29-97 at Packery Channel
bridge on Mustang Island (half mile from Padre Island traffic light).

------------------------------------------------------------------
Hazel Bazemore County Park has been the site of raptor migration counts
since the 1970's. Beginning in 1990, the Hawk Migration Association of
North America began conducting 10-day standardized counts for fall raptor
migration. In 1997, Hawk Watch International sponsored the first 3-month
standardized count for the fall raptor migration. The tiny county park was
once the best-kept raptor migration secret in the country, but is rapidly
gaining recognition as the having the highest concentration of migrating
raptors of any one location in the continental United States. Peak fall
migration days bring well over 100,000 raptors in one day through the
Nueces River basin and bluff located within the park boundaries. Season
totals can run well over as high as half a million. Funneling actions of
fall weather systems aid in the consolidation over the park of migrating
raptors from both the Central and Eastern flyways, and on occasion, we
suspect, some Western flyway incursions.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To find Hazel Bazemore Park take FM624 west from SH77 for about 1 mile to
the road on the right with a park sign marking it. The park road is just on
the west side of the water canal that crosses FM624. For more information,
see the Hazel Bazemore page on the Audubon Outdoor Club web site.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To go to the hawk watch site, go in the park entrance, make a left as soon
as you get across the speed bump, and follow the winding road to the crest
of the hill (past the restrooms, a covered picnic pavilion and around the next bend).
Where the road makes a bend to the left is where we park, and sit under the trees
(up against the 17th tee box to the golf course behind the park).
------------------------------------------------------------------