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Rpt Date: September 17, 1997
Site: Hazel Bazemore
County Park
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX
27 deg. 51.936"
97 deg. 38.560"
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
NOTE: And yet another good day! Looks like the push is on. Once again, Joel reports that most of the broadwings went over between the hours of 12:00-2:00 pm, CST. Consistent with previous year observations, and interestingly enough, also consistent with what several East coast sites are reporting.
Eleven observers on site today to lend Joel a hand, along with one couple came in to see the hawk migration, were on site less than fifteen minutes when a kettle of 3,400 broadwings rode the thermals in, "naked eye" birds no less, and danced the kettle migration dance overhead, to the great delight of the entire crowd. Minutes later, another kettle of 900 winged its way overhead. The couple went home thrilled with the experience of their lives. As did a local newspaper outdoors reporter who was on hand to cover the hawk watch for Sunday's paper. Despite years of covering outdoor events of all sorts, he noted he'd never seen anything quite like the sight of those thousands of hawks kettling overhead. We know just how you feel, Buddy.
A cold front approaches from the Pacific, and while not usually too dependable, we have high hopes this one will hold out and last until it hits us. If so, we'll have very nice concentrations passing through on Sunday-Monday-Tuesday. On to the numbers:
Species
9/17 Season
Black vulture 0
23
Turkey vulture 0
1
Osprey
0 13
Swallow-tail kite 0 7
White-tail kite 0
1
Miss. kite
2 2,641
Northern harrier 1
3
Sharp-shin hawk 1
12
Cooper's hawk 0
15
Red-shoulder hawk 0 14
Broadwing hawk 4,506 11,908
Swainson's hawk 0
110
White-tail hawk 0
1
Red-tail hawk 0
3
Amer. kestrel 0
5
Merlin
0 3
Peregrine falcon 0
4
Unk accipiter 1
12
Unk. buteo
0 6
Unk. falcon 0
2
Unk. raptor 1
63
Total:
4,512 14,849
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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.
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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.
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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).
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