Rpt Date:   November 15, 1997
Site:       Hazel Bazemore County Park
            Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX
            27 deg. 51.936"  by  97 deg. 38.560"
            (site manned 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Aug 15-Nov 15)
Reports:    Patty Beasley (transcriber)
Counters:   Patty & Bill Beasley
Sponsors:   Hawk Watch International
Support:    Hawk Migration Association of North America
            Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi
            H.E. Butt, Inc.
            Central Power & Light Company
 
And so we close another hawk watch at Hazel Bazemore County Park, ending the Fall 1997 season with an amazing grand total of 840,239 raptors!

It hasn't quite sunk in yet that it's really over (actually, not much of anything other than the nearest available heat source is sinking in any of us right now --- gadzooks, but it was COLD today!!). Winds blew steady at 22 km/h and gusted to 40; wind chill was around minus 7 degrees Centigrade. All right, all you northerners and Canadians can quit laughing any time now; don't forget .... our blood has thinned out considerably down here <grin!>!!

You know, the cold can do strange things to a person. Here we stood, the majority of our core hawk watch group, out on this all-but bald hill, leaning against gale-force winds, watching for those last official raptors that would be logged in on the last day of our official count. Wanting to be on the scene as we closed the watch that we've worked so hard to see through. Standing there .... freezing .... shaking water from the early morning mists off our coats and binoculars. Until Jo Creglow arrived on scene, took one look at our scruffy crew, and calmly asked us what in the WORLD were we thinking about, standing out there in the MIDDLE of the field, in gale-force winds, when we could see just as well OUT OF THE WIND, by standing closer to the mesquite brushline WIND BREAKS that were fifty feet in front of us!!!! (duck head sheepishly and insert goofy grin here!). We quietly gathered up our hot chocolate, hot spiced tea, and the last few shreds of our common sense and hoofed it over to the wind breaks. Whereupon, wonder upon wonder, we started to thaw out for the first time all morning! We continued the watch from the leeward side of the scruffy mesquite breaks, out of that lousy wind, until the rain and fog rolled in on top of us, and we finally were forced to call the watch at 1:00pm.

Even the resident raptors gave it up and eventually went for cover, although one of four local redtails was pretty entertaining as it kept getting blown completely upside down as it tried to hover in search of prey. A resident Cooper's decided it had had enough of the gusts and dove like a bullet for a tree on the nearby golf course. The peregrine, kestrel, and UA that came through wasted no time looking around; they shot over our heads like bullets and kept on heading south as fast as their wings would go. Only the vultures were optimistic; they circled and circled, looking for a thermal, making their own little kettle before deciding it wasn't going to happen, then got a head of steam up and quickly streamed south.

Believe it or not, we weren't the only crazy ones on the hill; eight golfers made their way around the course behind us, huddled inside their golf carts draped with those clear little wind break plastic screens! Takes all kinds! .... One of the golfers was one of our recent converts, who went from asking last year "What are those idiots doing over there?" to asking each time he teed off this season "How many hawks have you seen today!?"

We have had just an incredible outpouring of support, both by corporate and business sponsors and by volunteer counters and supporters, and before I officially close out this season's watch, on behalf of everyone at the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, I'd like to extend heartfelt thank-you's, to everyone who melted with us on the hot days, entertained us with great stories and conversation on the slow days, and shivered with us on these last few cold days.

I'll be filing at least one more report for the Fall 1997 watch in the next few days, to wrap up the season, pass along some thoughts from us to you, run through the high-low numbers, and look back on some of the fun we've had on the hill. Until then, here's the final tally for closing day (*sniff!!*):

SPECIES             11/15    SEASON
Black vulture       0        425
Turkey vulture      20       10,283
Osprey              0        82
Swallow-tail kite   0        7
White-tail kite     0        4        (9-15, 10-24, 10-26, 11-2)
Miss. kite          0        2,965
Northern harrier    0        88
Sharp-shin hawk     0        942
Cooper's hawk       0        415
Harris' hawk        0        5        (9-20, 9-27, 10-27, 11-1, 11-9)
Red-shoulder hawk   0        75       (1 elegans subsp. on 11-3)
Broadwing hawk      0        823,655
Swainson's hawk     0        300
White-tail hawk     0        4
Red-tail hawk       0        115      (3 Krider's subspecies)
Ferruginous hawk    0        1        (11-2)
Zone-tail hawk      0        2        (10-02, 11-2)
Rough-legged hawk   0        1        (09-27 DM)
Golden eagle        0        1        (10-27)
Caracara            0        9        (all adults so far)
Amer. kestrel       1        191
Merlin              0        25
Peregrine falcon    1        76
Prairie falcon      0        8
Unk accipiter       1        307
Unk. buteo          0        17
Unk. falcon         0        14
Unk. raptor         0        222
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Total:              23       840,239
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Other birds:

white-fronted geese:   328+
snow geese:              8
sandhill cranes:        12
d.c. cormorants:         3
ground doves:            3
inca doves              10
blue-winged teal        73
mallard drake (migrant)  1
hooded merganser         3 (2 males, 1 female)
roseate spoonbills
white ibis
white-faced ibis
snowy egret
great egret
lesser scaup
green-winged teal
mottled ducks
killdeer
Eastern phoebe
lesser yellowlegs
American avocets
great-tailed grackles
laughing gulls           8

AND ... a final bonus of the day at Robert and Jo Creglow's house, while thawing out before heading for home:

TWO Carolina chickadees (very rare for around here!)
blue-headed (ex-solitary) vireo
orange-crowned warblers (one minus all its tail feathers)
Northern cardinals (pair)
red-eyed vireo