An open letter, posted to the TexBirds and BirdHawk newsgroups from Bill Beasley:

Hello everyone,
        Having had a whole day to reflect on the record breaking day, I find it
very hard to find the words to accurately relate the experience to you. I
would like to tell everyone how fortunate I feel to have been present at
Hazel Bazemore this Monday to see and be a part of such a tremendous show
of nature.
        I can't tell you why it happened. I can't even guess if it will ever
happen again - I sure hope it does. I can tell you that we missed quite a
few birds. With a cloudless sky, it is very hard to pick up the really high
birds. Several times we didn't see the front of some "streams" as they went
overhead (once they passed overhead, they were blocked from view by the
trees behind us). No one knows how many we missed from those kettles or how
many entire kettles were missed completely. I guess I'm trying to say, as
incredible as it may seem, that the count should have been larger - I just
have no way of knowing how much larger.
        There seemed to be broad-wings all over the sky. Counters had to split up
to count two, three or four large kettles at a time with still others
counting single birds going through at the same time. And during all of
this, several non-watchers had to make sure that each counting group was
counting different birds. A great deal of care was taken to ensure that the
counts were as accurate as could be. All involved did a wonderful job. It
was very tiring. It was very exhilarating.
        We saw kettles of hawks that looked like monstrous tornadoes weaving back
and forth as they stretched to the heavens. We saw rivers of hawks that
reached across the sky from almost one horizon to another. Several times I
had to give in to the fatigue in my shoulders, arms and neck and drop my
binos. I was frustrated at having to rest physically while there were still
thousands of hawks overhead.
        I could not even take time out to watch a peregrine streak by as a "naked
eye bird" because I was trying my hardest to identify each bird in a group
of accips high overhead. My wonderful wife will testify that this was a
tremendous sacrifice on my part because peregrine falcons are, and have
always been, my favorites.
        The people sounds were amazing! Shouts of "kettle" and "they're streaming"
were almost a constant. As far as kettles go, there were: "small" kettles,
"large" kettles, "super" kettles, "mega" kettles, "get off your butt, it's
huge" kettles, "ball of gnats" kettles, "swirling/swarming" kettles, "Oh my
God" kettles, "you won't believe this" kettles, and "oh..oh..oh" kettles.
"Sharpie across the front of 'em". "There's an osprey in there with them".
"Anhingas in the middle". "There's more streaming in from below". "They're
streaming out of the top". "They go back as far as I can see"."They're
coming out of the bottom of that cloud". "Keep on this group, there's
another kettle to the east".

        I sincerely hope that each and every one of you can experience a day like
this. I will never forget it.

Good birding and good hawking.
Bill Beasley
Exhibits Technician/Coordinator
Texas State Aquarium
Corpus Christi, Texas