Hi Patty,

Okay. That does it. I am going to plan a trip - hopefully next year - down to your neck of the woods around this time of year. What numbers! What a day! I'll be oh-wowing through the rain here tomorrow thinking about *your* counts. (We're still in Osprey & Kestrel time here & as usual, small numbers. 30 is a good day.)

If you have time, I do have a question. You mentioned Swainson's Hawk numbers being "record" - do the big flights of Swainson's happen west of you? (I'm a rarely-traveling easterner - just don't know.) Do they come later in the season (like the Red Tails do here)?

I'm particularly curious about and very interested in Swainson's as we occasionally see them here in winter - including one a couple of years ago that I wrote up and had accepted by the SC Rare Birds committee - which was only the 2nd "accepted" sighting for the state, though it was one of 3 I've seen here in the past 4 years. I chose it to write up because it was a light phase adult (and thus easier to describe as distinct from other buteos to a skeptical committee - the other 2 birds were in juvenal plumage), it stayed in one area and was easily observed for a full month, and a total of 13 people were able to observe it before it left.

So first you have show-stopping numbers of Mississippi Kites, then Broad-wings . . . what's next? :)

Sharon Brown, still waiting in Charleston, SC

Hi Patty,

Just wanted to send you a note to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your Aug. 24 Coastal Bend report on HMANA - both for the report itself and for your enthusiastic writing! :) Our coastal migration is always slow starting - we only rarely get BWs here (most of what we see are the Red Tails & the falcons that come later in the season), and both kites breed here & just quietly leave - so I've been impatient (as usual for August) waiting for the fun to begin. It helps pass the time to enjoy hearing about what others are seeing. BTW, if I *ever* got the pleasure of seeing 1000 Mississippi Kites in a single kettle, I think I'd need CPR! :-D)

Sharon Brown, Charleston County, SC, slbrown@awod.com

Thanks for you hawk reports. I would like to suggest that you include the State and county in which you are observing from. I know it's Texas and it's probably in Corpus Christi You can do this in the report header. This is just a friendly suggestion and no harm is intended. Keep up the good work.

Regards, Gary Carter/Roanoke, VA, gcarter@roanoke.infi.net

Dear Patty Beasley,

You truly make me want to pull up stakes and move to TEXBIRDSland.
Though I don't know you or any of the people you mentioned in your Hazel
Bazemore Hawk Watch tribute,  I felt so good reading it!  You did a
beautiful job.

My husband and I will be birding in Texas along the coast and up the Rio
Grande for a few weeks beginning about the middle of January.  We made
this trip in March of 1995 and had a great, productive time.  If you
have time in your obviously busy life, could you let me know about  the
"don't miss" places for the time we will be there?  We'll be driving
from MD and plan to cover the Gulf Coast from LA west.  I have all the
Texas birdfinding guides,etc.  At least, I think I have all of them.  If
you are too busy to answer this, I will certainly understand.

I really look forward to TEXBIRDS every day;  it's a great vicarious
birding experience.  Your hawk watch homepage is super.

Most sincerely,
Bobbie Mills

I am enjoying your postings on Hazel Bazemore; who would have thought it - the premier raptor count place in North America!

Bill & Jean Holmes Garland, TX

Egad, Patty! That's a LOT of Anhingas! Congrats on the hard work. The next few weeks ought to be spectacular.

Chuck

Thanks for keeping us updated on this fascinating phenomenon. It is valuable data for the temportal patterns of raptor migration. (P.S. you have your latitude/longitude coordinates transposed--no big deal).

John Arvin

This morning, Sunday, September 14, 1997, I visited the site about 10:15 AM. I am a just showing early signs of "birding" fever so I don't know all the proper etiquette for you folks manning a "birding" site such as this. You made me feel welcome (I was asked to be the first to "Sign" the visitors log. Too bad there weren't more birds to show up on the occasion of my first experience. Thanx (I'll be back soon..

Peace and Love

Patty,

Thank you very much for your reports from the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch. I enjoy them very much. I also wanted to just say "howdy". I remember my trip to Corpus Christi last July, and your help fondly.
 

Regards, Dave

Let me make reservations for about 20-30 extra people who'll be at Bazemore tomorrow (Saturday). I'll be bringing my Vertebrate Zoology class from A&M Kingsville and I expect the bulk of the crowd to arrive around 8am. Thanks for the daily posts. I read them every day.

Glenn Perrigo, Department of Biology, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Glenn-Perrigo@tamuk.edu

Thank you thank you Thank you

the numbers are GREAT!!! I hope the rain doesn't ruin monday, I'll be there

Peace and Love

Thanks, all you Hawk Watchers for the great experience (I was they guy in the Black-Capped Vireo cap). Sorry I didn't join you Sunday, but I worked my way slowly across Corpus from Mustang Island, recording all sorts of shorebirds that y'all are probably bored to tears with, but which are exciting for a San Antonian. Wonderful warblers at Pollywog Pond. You have wonderful birding down there.

Monospecifically Archilochustically yours,

Andy Balinsky

great job! greatly appreciated by this first time internet user. San Antonio Audubon was with you on Saturday 9/20. Better luck tomorrow.

Thanks Georgina Schwartz.

Patty Beasley: I have been reading your hawk watch postings with interest but also with some frustration. With all the other postings, I can simply double-click the message, which opens a window enabling me to copy the text and paste it into an MSWord document (so that I can print out a compendium of the watch reports to distribute to friends). I cannot similarly open your messages, but rather am forced to save each as a text file and spend time editing out the /s and rearranging the text in readable condition. My office computer is a Mac SE/30 and the E-mail software is H.P.'s OpenMail Client, v. B.02.10.00. I appreciate in advance any enlightenment on this matter you can give me.

Barry Freed, Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Cancer Center, New York, NY (freedb@mskcc.org)

P.S. I was at Pelham Bay Park last Sunday (9/21) and contributed 3 bald eagles and several kettles of broadwings to Steve Walter's count. However, I left at 2 PM and missed more than half the broadies! (Nuts.)

I am NOT looking forward to this evening's report........I just know you'll surpass 20,000 birds today and I wasn't there to see them!!!!!!

Peace and Love, Sarge

Wow. What a great day and thanks to you and Bill, Jimmy and Glenn, Joel, etc. for sharing it with me. I will never forget the sight of that split kettle. Was it 70,000 broadwings in about 30 minutes? In the bottom and out of the top. What a sight! Then Joel took me to his house where two more "lifers" were recorded. The Broadtailed and Buff-bellied. I pulled up your write-up on yesterday's count thinking that I might want to save it as a momento and appreciated your icing on the cake comment. Didn't we also get 2-3 White-tailed and a Merlin yesterday? It was an incredible day. I hope you got 350,000 today.

Later, Walt

Mistress of understatement!!!! I about fell out of my chair. Hope to have a FAR better than average day Sunday with the Bexar Audubon group

Andy

>Better than average day today at Hazel. (!)

Hi Patty,

Well, I was reading your report today and thinking that you'd had a slow day UNTIL I hit the broadwing total. That blew me away. Some day I've GOT to get to some of these sites and see these spectacles. I can identify with CB when she says she thought she'd had a good day until she saw your totals. I guess I can safely assume that there aren't any broadwings left in Canada. I hope you told them to be sure and come back in spring!

Cheers, Rob Parsons, Winnipeg, MB, CANADA rparsons@icenter.net

So you just could not behave and leave the hawks alone until Pat and I could be there also. right? Oh well. Oh WOW. Great day. Thanks for the report. The shots on ch 10 looked real good. Little side reminder, on the directions, 624 is off US 77 not State Hwy 77. Bet you guys really had a great time, blue sky or no. I wonder what is yet to come since the peak has probably not happened yet?

See Ya, Blessings, William & Pat

Damn! Damn! Damn! You guys really blew them away, and we're proud of you. Phoebe kept looking out the plane window, as though she was going to look down on some incredible kettle. I didn't try to discourage her. Thanks for a GREAT WEEKEND! It is one of those memories that we will keep forever. When I have put all of my thoughts down in my journal, I'll send a copy for your entertainment. Thanks again! Love to all ........ see you next year (if not before) ........ EAT MORE CHOCOLATE!

The Sealys', Phoebe Lou and Jim

PATTY--

I am going to Veracruz and have been emailing your cts to them--Hope the Bws hang out in Northern MX a day or two until I can get there and see them. I would be interested in getting a final tally of dark morph proportions at end of bw flight

Laurie Goodrich Hawk Mt. Senior Naturalist

Texbirders: I had an opportunity to bird some around Corpus Christi this past weekend, from late Friday evening through Sunday morning (26 - 28 September). I was primarily interested in seeing and studying warblers, particularly those I don't have much opportunity to observe in W TX. I spent time at several well-known sites that are described in birding guides: Packery Channel Park, Pollywog Pond, Blucher Park, Nueces River Park, and Hazel Bazemore Park.There were good numbers of warblers to see, especially at relatively small Blucher Park, in downtown Corpus Christi. The weather was great for people -- sunny, warm but not too hot, and relatively low humidity -- but it was probably not great weather for bringing large numbers of warblers into the trees and shrubs. Nevertheless, I saw 13 species of warbler and had a fine time (I always have a fine time in the field!).

My warbler list for the weekend included the species listed below. If a species was seen at only one location, that location is given in parentheses. American Redstart (common at Packery Channel), Northern Waterthrush (Packery Channel), Wilson's Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Mourning Warbler (Blucher), Yellow-breasted Chat (Blucher), Canada Warbler (Blucher), Ovenbird (Blucher), Magnolia Warbler (Blucher), Tennesse Warbler (Pollywog Pond), Common Yellowthroat. I had just purchased the new Dunn and Garrett warbler field guide, and must echo the sentiments expressed by several others: this book is rich, thorough and very good. I do wish the Peterson book were lighter, and I wish the plates were larger. The Curson et al warbler guide is also indispensible. I gain a better appreciation of its quality with each use. While birding, I carried the Dunn and Garrett in a hip pack, and kept the larger, hardcover Curson et al in the car. Unfortunately, my time in Corpus was limited and the places I wanted to bird was too large!

I did spend a couple hours at the Hazel Bazemore hawk watch, mid-afternoon Saturday. Saw several spectacular kettles of Broad-wings, each with thousands of hawks; and a good mix of other species, such as Peregrine Falcon, Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, and White-tailed Hawk (a resident bird, I was told). This is great fun and quite interesting. I highly recommend everyone visit one of the hawk watch sites at this time of year.

Mark Adams, Fort Davis, TX, mta@astro.as.utexas.edu

Patty

Our "northern" hats off to the C.C. Gang of counters and "wide-mouthed" nonbelivers. I have had my good days at Holiday Beach (53,000) for Broad-wings. Lake Erie (SMRR) had their best day several years ago (228,000). 3/4 of the entire population viewed in the US at one site is truely impressive. Where did they come from up hear? Duluth's birds passed your way earlier. Our scant day and SMRR's 50,000 are probably in the first wave of this weekend. No one had the numbers up here this year. Did they cut the lake corners? Did they fly too high to see? Here is a few phrases to add to the "things said at hawk sites" collection you are starting.

"Oh, you mean that Red-tail."

"Oh, did you get that Red-tail?"

"Your both wrong. You two are on different birds."

Patty Beasley wrote: > Broadwing hawk 302,180 759,337 (NOTE: 1 dark morph)

Enjoy the migration and keep looking up!

- Bob, Bob Pettit <raptor@webbernet.net> Monroe County Community College, Monroe, MI 48161

Hi, Patty ~

I can't believe those numbers!!!!!! Are you sure those birds aren't flying around and around in circles and you're counting them over and over?? Y'know, a confederate general in the Civil War did that: marched his soldiers and cannons around and around in a circle so it appeared that he had 5 times the man- and fire-power, and it worked because the federal general turned tail and ran!!!!!!

On Sunday, I listened to Mike Dillon tell about visiting y'all a couple weeks ago and helping to count birds for ya. He REALLY enjoyed himself!!!! It sounds like you're having fun, even if y'ARE so tired you'd have to rally to die!!! Hang in there, baby ~ another 15 days and your life will be your own again. Meanwhile, stock up on M&Ms (they melt in your mouth, not in your hands) and getcher-self a good-lookin' hunk to hold up those binoculars for ya!!!!!!

with love, Cyndie

Dear Patty,

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed your 28 Sept. report from the hawk watch! It makes me feel I should get out to one of our sites and do some watching (and relearning) too. Am awfully rusty on raptors these days (3 yrs. of various illness have me feeling like a novice). But I love it when the excitement of birding comes through as it did in your ecstatic report! A colorless count or trip report is always so disappointing, I feel. I am, sadly, far from Texas, in Maryland. Did visit my folks in Austin a couple of weeks ago, including a reunion/vacation down at S. Padre (about 10 lifers seen with very litle effort!!). But the family was the emphasis, and I kind of had to sneak in my birding... Well, does 4 visits in 7 days to Laguna Atascosa sound like sneaking?! Didn't make it to a couple of other areas (Brownsville, Sabal Palms, Santa Ana), but there **will** be a next time. The roadrunner continues to elude me! Anyway, this subscription to TexBirds has been a great way to bird that place vicariously. It's way too late, so I'll close w/o editing these random thoughts. Hope tomorrow will be another great day at Hazel Bazemore. May your enthusiasm never wane!

Julie Kelly, jfkelly@ibm.net -- Kensington, Maryland

SWEET JESUS! The gods have smiled! I've marked our 1998 calendar for the 24th through the 27th. Phoebe and I will be there ............. with CHOCOLATE! Thanks for what you do.

Jim and Phoebe Lou Sealy 

Many congrats Patty! I have been suspecting for over a week now that the BWs escaped through us uncounted (I posted this notion at the time, about the18th-20th), both here in the northeast and in Detroit. I will spend some time on a post mortem and post to BirdHawk. Your data confirmed my suspicions and I will do a bit of math to show why to all. Oh my I knew it too, and if I could have only gotten Mon/Tuesday off, Lois and I would have joined you for a 4 day weekend. But some fool scheduled a business meeting on Monday with vendors/customers flying in from ends of the earth, and since I was the said fool, and since I was running the meeting, it seemed that I was expected to be here and not there. Maybe next year.

Kirk Moulton 

Thank You Patty, I appreciate the feed back. I've been at a site in Central Massachusetts when 17,000+ wings passed on Sept. 13, 1989 .... I can't possibly comprehend what you and "your" group has witnessed over the past week! I'm sure no words can describe it! Thanks again!

Tom Pirro, Gardner , Ma. 01440, tpirro@nebs.com

congratulations patty!! good work--maybe i should move to corpus!!!!

Hi Patty,

I'm a "watcher - reader" on TEXBIRDS, and if you want to keep telling the good things that happen while you're out, please do! Those who don't want to read them can go on to the next post. One time that Winnie added some text that I thought was really interesting, I wrote her also and asked her to keep it up. This is much more interesting than reading just the lists, which I do scan. I'll be kinda in your area in a couple of weeks - in Palacios for their bird thing there. I seldom get much south of Houston, which is a shame, but my own fault! Too many other things I like to do. Anyway, thanks for your interesting stories.

Lynne Magee, lynne@c-com.net

Subject: Re: Osprey on Sign

Hi Patty,

I, too, am a raptor enthusiast and amateur photographer. Your post of the Osprey perched on the sign next to the highway was very entertaining and well-written. In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area where I reside, Osprey are in general, much less tolerant of terrestrially-bound humans, but seem to get quite acclimated to people in boats passing nearby their nest, perches or roosts on open water, i.e., the Potomac River. Since I don't have a boat and want to acquire that one great photographic image of an Osprey, I've spent a bit of time attempting to photograph them on-shore near their nests (the Osprey population seems to be doing so well that many of the more desirable channel markers are occupied, so they have taken to using snags along the shore of the rivers, creeks and bays). In my experiences, the nesting Osprey that I've tried to photograph have been much less cooperative (by at least an order of magnitude, if one could measure cooperation) than the guy you encountered. I would die for the opportunity you described. Oh well, I've also learned that it takes a lot of effort, mostly involving dedicating the time, to get good photos, so I'm still hopeful. Best of luck to you and the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch. I've been following your progress during this migration season, mostly inspired by your early reports of the Mississippi Kite migration, but also awed by your reports of the Broad-winged Hawk rush of a few weeks ago. Last summer we discovered the first record of Mississippi Kite breeding in Virginia (in Woodbridge, Va. about 20 miles south of Washington, D.C.) and ever since I've had an insatiable appetite for anything related to them. I am on the Board of Directors of the Raptor Society of Metropolitan Washington and a volunteer raptor bander for the USFWS at Kiptopeke State Park on the southern-most tip of the Virginia Eastern Shore. Thanks for your post and I've taken the liberty of including a little propaganda about our organization.

A.J. (Tony) Quezon, Carderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, e-mail: quezon@oasys.dt.navy.mil and ajquezon@juno.com

My wife and I want you to know how much we have enjoyed your posts on the hawk watches. We have particularly enjoyed your writing style. To be honest with you, I never read your posts until my wife pointed out the one on the "incredible" day of Broad-winged Hawks. Since, I have read every one. Reading your escription of that day, I could almost feel the excitement. Anyway, keep up the good work.

Cade and Mary Coldren, College Station

This is just a "fan note" to say how much my wife and I have enjoyed the comments you have attached to the BIRDHAWK reports. We like your enthusiasm for birds and find it a healthy antidote to the birders who just can't wait to find Life Bird #785. You recent adventure with the osprey on the "Don't Mess" sign is an example of what we like.

Happy birding, Charles and Marie Ferguson

Dear Ms. Beasley:

I have enjoyed reading your stuff on TEXBIRDS, Please keep it up. Tonight was my first visit to your page, hope to visit more. My Wife and I will be visiting Corpus, in our other hobby - auto racing- during the weekends of Jan. 17-18 and April 18-19. We might be able to get another extra day off around one of those dates, would there be any advantage to one weekend over another? We might be able to swing either a Monday or a Friday, depending on what is going on. We are moderatly experienced coastal birders (witness our poor showing in E. Texas as I posted) and would be willing assistants to whatever work is in progress at that time. Any suggestions, please let me know at ed111db@postoffice.swbell.net

Thanks, Ed and Lyn Hunter

Hi TexBirders,

As we come to the end of the Coastal Bend (Hazel Bazemore) Hawk Watch for Fall 1997, I just wanted to take a moment and thank the sponsors, official and unofficial watchers, and the data posters for their incredible, historic contributions this season.  This goes for the Coastal Bend folks and the Smith Point operation as well.

Regardless of the fact that historical records were set at these sites for numbers of migrant raptors, simply the organization, effort, and most importantly, the timely dissemination of this wealth of data is unprecidented in the annals of Texas ornithology.  Especially on behalf of my colleague Greg Lasley and all other seasonal  compilers, we THANK YOU.

I've got all of that data from TexBirds but I can't claim that I'll be able to congitate on it to the level it deserves.  I hope that Hawk Watch International and some enthusiastic statisticians (a.k.a. number nerds) will groom all that data and present a dynamite story to the birding world. The data for this season alone could be the grist of a good graduate project and several in-depth scientific analyses.

The problem is, we will now come to expect no less!  One year to the next, the flights of hawks will vary, but a new standard of reporting has been set.

In my cursory review, I note at a minimum the following organizations and individuals who deserve our gratitude and thanks.  I hope the organizers of these events will correct me and add to this honor roll:

COASTAL BEND HAWK WATCH (Hazel Bazemore County Park)

   Sponsors:  Hawk Watch International, Hawk Migration Association of N. America,
                       Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi.

   Official Observers:  Joel Simon, Glen Swartz + ???

   Correspondent/Poster/Web Page:  Patty Beasley

SMITH POINT HAWK WATCH (C. Abshier Wildlife Management Area)

   Sponsors:  Texas Parks & Wildlife Department,
                       Gulf Coast Bird Observatory,
                       Ornithology Group of Houston Outdoor Nature Club,
                       Hawk Watch International

   Official Observers:  Winnie Burkett, Doug Cooper, +++

   Correspondent/Poster:  Winnie Burkett

I apologize to any official participants or organizers if I've failed to recognize you.  I also thank the eager volunteers and members of Travis Audubon Society and the Highland Lakes Bird and Wildflower Society who came by to help me at Balcones Canyonlands on our nominal efforts.

Thanks go to ALL of the eager eagle eyes who stopped by for a moment or a day or a season at each of these hawk watches.  Ain't it fun?!

Happy Data Analysis!  Now on to Winter 97-98!

Chuck Sexton,
Austin, Texas

Patty, the hawks migration may not be over, more will pass by at your hawkwatch. Many hawks are still migrating at Great Lakes and are moving south and will head for you. You could find some volunteer birder to continue counting until Dec. 15. Believe me some more hawks from the north will come. Don't give up. I'm still counting hawks in Baltimore until Dec. 15, the Redtail are going strong along with N. Harrier. I hope you find some birders to take over for until Dec. 15 (migration ending Dec. 15)

Hi! Just wanted to drop you a line to express my sincere thanks for all the hard work you've done in keeping your report updated and personal. You are by far the BEST scribe on Hawk Watch '97. As a matter of fact, the way you represented yourself and the area you're in, I would like to take a trip your way. I'm sure that I'll be impressed with all that Hazel Bazemore has to offer. What might be most opportune time to visit, if I may impose for a reply. If not, thank you anyway, I look forward to more input from you in the way only you know how to do it!

Respectfully Yours, Joseph P Mazzone, North Bergen, New Jersey, LittleJynx@worldnet.att.net

Hello from Fredonia, NY

I just had to drop you a note - can't begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed all of your reports on the Hawk Watch! I followed faithfully every day and felt as if I were there with you! What an exciting time! As co-president of the Lake Erie Bird Club, I included many of your observations, comments and counts in a column I have been writing for our monthly newsletter - "The Virtual and Real Birder" is my heading. I'm enjoying your closing reports and you can be sure you have a faithful follower! Your work is truly appreciated.

Jeanine Smith Fredonia, NY
JS