Site:       Hazel Bazemore County Park
            Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX
            27 deg. 51.936"
            97 deg. 38.560"
            Site manned 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, CENTRAL standard time, Aug 15-Nov 15
Counters:   Joel Simon (jsimon@electrotex.com) and
            Glenn Swartz (glennswartz@worldnet.att.net)
Reports:    Patty Beasley (pbeasley@electrotex.com)
Sponsors:   Hawk Watch International
            Hawk Migration Association of North America
            Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi
            Hazel Bazemore County Park
            H.E. Butt, Inc.
            Central Power & Light Company

Date:  August 15, 1998
 

Greetings all!

Ahhhh, it's SO good to get back out on the hill and soak up that south Texas sun, back once again amongst our hawk watch extended family. Hey, we're going in style this year; we've got not one, but three, count 'em, three shade canopies! We've got the official proven hawk bait (chocolate) on hand in mass quantities, and we're ready to go for the season.

Today was opening day for Fall 1998 for our official counters Joel Simon and Glenn Swartz, who are recording migration data again this season for Hawk Watch International.

Almost as many hawkers as birds were on site today. Not a bad day in all for opening day; historically a fairly light day for numbers.

Day Count 08-15-98:
Mississippi kites: 5
Red-shouldered hawk: 1
Red-tailed hawk:  2
Total:   8

One nice little incident: while watching one of the passing red-tailed hawks, we all looked, exclaimed how pretty it was, watched a little more, then stood down. All but Glenn Swartz, who kept his glasses on the 'tail, and suddenly exclaimed "Whoa!" Of course, that got our attention! Glasses popped back up on the bird, to find a resident white-tailed kite that had apparently taken high exception to the passage of the red-tailed hawk, and which proceeded to divebomb the red-tail a half a dozen times or so as the 'tail passed through the watch area. No contact and no damage done to either, but a lot of fun to watch. Pays to keep those glasses up just a second or two longer!

I should also note that the Great American Chocolate Experiment is on once again. The 5 kites came through early in the morning. It was desert and drought for the next several hours, UNTIL the chocolate finally made an appearance as we started to get a bit antsy. The bites of those wonderful homemade brownies from Glenn weren't even down our throats, when the 'tails and the red-shouldered made their appearances. We intend to bury the watch in chocolate this year (by Fall 1997's watch end; we'd all lost any semblence of restraint and could be seen staggering around the hill waving bags of chocolate in all sorts of forms, trying to bait in the hawks. And, it must've worked. You'll recall we broke all national and state records last fall with more than 840,000 hawks passing over from August 15th to November 15th). You want to know how much chocolate we ate last fall? The counters collectively groaned and ran when the chocolate came out today, some refusing to even touch the bag! What sweet torture, ha!

We also had a nice list of day birds at the park. Fall migration is surely underway, and with your indulgence; the quick list follows:

Good birding, all; we'll talk again tomorrow.

- Patty Beasley

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Day birds for 08-15-98, Hazel Bazemore County Park: