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

Hello once more, everybody!

We close another hawk watch at Hazel Bazemore County Park, ending the Fall 1997 season with a grand total of 840,245 raptors. Wow ..... let's just savor that number for a second ..... eight hundred forty thousand, two hundred forty five.

I just had to get one more note out to everyone who took the time to write and email me with all your wonderful comments and critiques (especially the praise, always VERY much appreciated! <grin!>) and suggestions for improvements and changes regarding our posts to the various birding news groups and to our web page for the Fall '97 Coastal Bend Hawk Watch. Every comment was taken to heart and there were some excellent suggestions and insight offered up, most of which I've implemented. I've saved every message, and with sincere apologies to all the authors, who have NO idea I'm about to post your notes to the Internet (!), I want to say thank you, and I hope you don't mind me sharing what I've come to think of as our "Visitor's Log" of email with those who couldn't take part in the Hawk Watch. We had so many wonderful folks send us mail that I'm afraid the mail servers will explode, if I try to forward it here. So, instead, I will post the Visitor's Log to the AOC web site, at the following address:

     VisitorLogFall97.html

If you have no internet access, and would like a copy of the Log, let me know, and I'll email a copy to you privately.

But, before you go there, please bear with me a few minutes more:  I want to extend our most sincere thanks again, publicly, from all of us involved with the Hazel Bazemore County Park Hawk Watch to all of you wonderful folks who took a ride with us this year on the Hawk Watch '97 freight train! What a ride it was, too; I don't think ANYONE on the hill could have begun to predict the season we'd have. It's just a few weeks now after watch (Thanksgiving Day, actually -- very appropriate, yes?) and I'm still stunned by our numbers. I mean, yeah, we have incredible numbers of hawks every year, but EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND??!! Wow. Adjectives just fail. But, you know, we've always known this area, for whatever geographical, meteorological, physical or metaphysical reasons, is special. Did you all know our humble Coastal Bend region boasts more record-breaking numbers than any other one site in the entire country (Rockport, Texas still stands with the list of most species recorded in one day; Hazel Bazemore County Park west of Corpus Christi racks up more hawks in one season than any other area's count for the entire year in the country; and the Corpus Christi Christmas Count holds the record for the most species of birds counted for CBC in 1996) .... this area truly has something to offer for ANY kind of birding you want to do, whether it's passerine, raptors, shore birds, even pelagics offshore. Even those of us who live here are continually awed by each year's count; something new always seems to be happening!

A good portion of the credit for the ability for us all to find new birds and birding areas goes to the hundreds of folks who traveled massive numbers of miles to come visit us, during watches or just 'cuz, and even just electronically on the 'net, when they couldn't be here in person. The extent that some folks went to this fall in order to help really was phenomenal in itself, and deeply appreciated by those of us on the hill, who had the rare privilege of expanding our families once again by meeting fellow hawk enthusiasts and initiating new relationships with friends we'll keep the rest of our lives. It's just so hard to put all this into words (and those of you who know me, know I am seldom at a loss for words <grin!>).

However, some folks really stand out above and beyond others, and if you'll bear with me, I have to mention a few special names. The first special thank-you (and if we had a President's award, you'd get one, John) goes to John Economidy, Texas Regional Editor, Hawk Migration Association of North America. John put Hazel Bazemore on the international raptor migration map in 1988 by counting and logging in the first 10-consecutive-day raptor counts at Hazel Bazemore County Park each fall season. Those 10-day periods were bracketed before and after by many, many, many individual additional days of counts by hard core raptorphiles and birders who came again and again during the season to Hazel Bazemore, just for the sheer love of the hunt (and are still coming, to this day!)!

Also deserving of a President's Award are Jimmy and Glenn Swartz, a father and son team who share a mutual love of birding, and who were on the hill at Hazel with John for at least the last eight years of the watches and with Joel Simon for his first watch tour this fall. During this Fall's watch, Jimmy celebrated his 75th birthday with his extended birding family at Hazel Bazemore, and was on site every single day of the watch, without fail, with a constant smile and words of encouragement - our best on-site ambassador! I don't think any of us would have survived on that hill this fall (or all those other years of watches!) without Jimmy and Glenn's help and support! They trained most of us, and have been there with us to keep the legacy going.

One other person who deserves a President's Award, and so much more than just a simple thank-you, is Dr. Carter Whatley, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. Carter took the lead in coordinating the watches for many years in publicity and organizing volunteer observers, and Carter helped to get the word out with the first on-line web pages for the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch (all of which have been preserved and remain on-line on this site). I personally owe a great debt of gratitude to Carter, for first breaking me in on the watch and then opening my eyes to the incredible possibilities of putting this amazing process on-line for the rest of the world. Thank you, Carter; any and all success we may have had on-line this season is directly due to all your hard work in paving the way first. Your strength of character and passion for this enterprise have been and continue to be a source of inspiration to me and to all who know you.

Of others who were there from the beginning, and stayed to the end, logging in so many volunteer hours and providing other sorts of invaluable help in so many other ways, just the mere words "thank you" aren't nearly enough to begin expressing our appreciation of them: To Robert and Jo "Eagle Eyes" Creglow for your constant presence and support, your tireless hours of volunteer help, and those INCREDIBLE raptor silhouette cutouts you hand-tooled this year that were so valuable during the watch. To Harold Fetter for his deep love of birding and birders -- who has the soul of a poet and the spirit of the raptors he admires so much -- and who comes out day after day to his "backyard" of Hazel Bazemore County Park to lend everyone his support and share his eight decades of rich birding experience. To Joyce Penny for her positive energy that kept all our spirits up; for her endless cheer in running errands for those of us who couldn't leave the watch site, and who kept us supplied in massive amounts of chocolate and good cheer during the slower periods. To the wonderful staff of Hazel Bazemore County Park for their help and support; and unending patience with all the creative parking we had to do to accommodate the crowds. To Joel Simon, our first 90-day watch counter, who went from seeing raptors only every so often during birding forays around the world, to getting his eyes opened wide with a 90-day crash course in migration counting - a real baptism by fire! (Okay, Joel, NOW you can go to Veracruz and see the other half of the migration! But, be back before Spring '98 Watch!). One more special thank you to Glenn Swartz for all of his help in so many ways; assisting Joel as a paid counter this season, helping to train Joel on-the-job; and for his years of patience in training the rest of us on the hill, along with his dad; and who absolutely, hands-down, bakes the BEST chocolate chip cookies anywhere (guaranteed to bring in the hawks - the penultimate hawk bait, aside from pure chocolate!!). And, last but not least, thank you to Steve Hoffman and Hawk Watch International, for taking up the challenge of taking us to the next level in hawk watching through 90-day scientific standardized counts.

Two very special thank-yous (and Hercules Awards, if we had 'em!), go to two incredibly supportive and understanding spouses: to Vicki Simon, who had to run the birding store and the household by herself for 90-days, bearing the load with grace, and still managing to make it out on the hill from time to time to join us in the watch on her one day off during the week! And my deepest love and appreciation to my husband, Bill Beasley, who was not only side-by-side with me throughout the watch; bringing me Dr. Peppers and dinner at the computer late into the nights, and reminding me to go get some sleep every so often; but who also took on the larger load of dealing with the household while I plugged into the computer each night into the wee hours of the morning to run the numbers through the web site, email, newsgroups, and data set programs for Hawk Watch International. Joel and I have MUCH to be thankful for on this day.

Love and thanks go to our intrepid "regulars" who came out time and again as time allowed (and sometimes, as time didn't allow, but came anyway!): Dr. Blair & Sandy Sterbo-Boatwright, Kent Taylor, Mike Dillon, Otto Schreiber, Nettie Williams and Bernie & Janie Schaaf. For photos, video and media coverage during the watch, special thanks to Jim Jackson and John West of Beeville, TX; our own Bill Beasley; Betty and Larry O'Neal of Rockford, Illinois; Jim and Phoebe Lou Sealy of Lancaster, TX; Michelle Germano of KZTV-CBS Channel 10, Corpus Christi, TX; Karen Loke of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Austin, TX; and Phyllis Yochem, columnist, Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper. As often happens, I'm sure I've left out some names, and to anyone I've left off, my sincere apologies and deepest thanks anyway, for your help and support.

Even with all the excitement of the count, however, the MOST exciting part of this season's watch to me, and I think equally as important as our count, is our ability now to finally get into the worldwide birding communication networks and let the rest of the world know about the phenomenal Coastal Bend area of Texas. At the top of the thank-you's list is to the Internet Service Provider company of Electrotex, Inc., who got us set up on line with a web site and email access this summer, well in time to start the preliminary work necessary to track the raptors (Hawk Watch International started their official counts here on August 15th; Bill and I and some other hard cores actually started our observations on August 1st). Electrotex was ALWAYS there, ALWAYS up, and my posts never took longer than a few minutes to get through their system and onto the Web (America Online, eat your heart out and take notes!). Kent Taylor, the Corpus Christi manager for Electrotex, bore the brunt of my many early screams for help, and I want to publicly thank you now, Kent, for all you've done (and no, THIS post and public thank-you STAYS on the page. Live with it. You deserve it!). You're a good guy, a good sport, a damn good birder, and we couldn't have done this season's Hawk Watch online so successfully without all your help personally in getting us sponsored and up on-line. (Besides, you're getting major payback now for getting involved, since we were able to stick you with the new job of 1997 Corpus Christi Christmas Count Coordinator <grin!>! And THANK YOU for taking on that added job. Whataguy!)

Before we go to the comments that you all were kind and thoughtful enough to send (and for which I may get flamed for putting them online, ha!), let me say to all of you a heartfelt THANK YOU from me personally, for allowing me to be a part of this incredible period of history. When I first got online and started up the watch posts, I was just concerned that the rest of the watches out there see what we had coming overhead. Heck, I lurked amongst the other watch reports myself, for a long time, too, as most of us did before we went online ourselves. And hey, most of those birds now flying over our heads came through at some other watch point before they hit us! We're all caught up in the chase and the hunt, wanting to know where they're going, and how they're doing it. Just the communications I've had this season, back and forth with other compilers and posters in the US and Canada, tracking and trying to predict the flight paths of these beauties, has been a wonderful adventure, all by itself! I have really enjoyed, beyond any words I can come up with at the moment, the incredible fortune of being able to play a small part in this venture by sharing our experiences via the Internet and the news groups. This communication we have with each other is something that all watches ... indeed, all birders, need to do, and my hats are off to all the rest of you who have paved the way and taken your time to keep the rest of us updated on these amazing counts. To who or whatever started this incredible Internet, our deepest appreciation. How did we get on in life before the 'Net? And, what's coming NEXT?

Keep looking up, and we'll stay online -- for whatever counts may come in between -- and then, for the Spring '98 Hawk Watch!! See you then! Meanwhile, stock up on that chocolate, keep your lenses clean, and remember, we're just an email away ..... so keep in touch!

With deepest appreciation to you all for all your support and wonderful comments and help and advice, thank you all, on behalf of all of us at the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch. See you soon for Spring count!

Cheers,
Patty Beasley
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
1997 Coastal Bend Hawk Watch Coordinator
Webmaster, Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi web site

PS: This letter will also be uploaded to the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch web pages. The web pages contain the links to the actual Visitor's Log page as noted above, plus a page devoted to a final wrap and recap of numbers for the year (Glenn Swartz's separate post for the numbers recap).It's been a helluva ride and a lot of fun! See you all next watch, if not before (don't worry, I'll find SOME excuse to keep posting!).