View September, 1997 cumulative spreadsheet
View August, 1997 cumulative spreadsheet
Return
to Reports by Date
Return
to Coastal Bend Hawk Watch Page
Coastal Bend Hawk Watch, Fall 1997
Site: Hazel Bazemore
County Park
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX
Lat. West 27 degrees, 51.936 minutes
Long. North 97 degrees, 38.560 minutes
Reports: Patty Beasley (pbeasley@electrotex.com)
Counter: Joel Simon
(site manned 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Aug 15-Nov 15)
Sponsors: Hawk Watch International
Support: Hawk Migration Association of
North America
Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi
Rpt Date: September 7, 1997
8/15/97 forward
Species
9/07 Watch to Date
Black vulture 0
23
Turkey vulture 0
1
Osprey
1 4
Swallow-tail kite 0
7
Miss. kite
62 2,380
Northern harrier 0
1
Sharp-shin hawk 0
6
Cooper's hawk 0
8
Red-shoulder hawk 0
6
Broadwing hawk 49
338
Swainson's hawk 1
60
White-tail hawk 0
1
Red-tail hawk 0
3
Merlin
1 2
Ameri. kestrel 0
1
Unk accipiter 0
2
Unk. buteo
0 3
Unk. raptor
1 9
Total:
115 2,854
NOTES:
Much better day today, once the weather settled out. Started with
north winds in the morning, which always bodes well for us, switching to
east winds in the early afternoon. Anhingas came through with a vengeance
today; tallied 1,830. Logged in 6 wood storks and 8 white ibis (mostly
immatures). Other passerines and empids continue to flow in; Couch's kingbirds
still at the park, along with olive-sided flycatcher, and shorebirds abound
at the fast-dwindling pond at the park: buff breasted sandpipers, stilt
sandpipers, etc. Warblers continue in; seen around the Coastal Bend area:
yellow, yellow-throated, black & white, Canada, mourning, etc. A more
complete list of general migrants can be found at the AOC home page for
the Sept.
6 field trip report for Indian Point, Fred Jones in Portland, TX.
------------------------------------------------------------------
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).
------------------------------------------------------------------