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

Report Date:  August 28, 1998
 

Greetings! Boy, has Joel got a story for us today!

"Glenn will send you the dickie bird list but I have to tell you about the bird of the day. At 3:45 in the afternoon a raptor-like bird sailed behind tree six, when it came out from behind the tree all I could tell was that it was very large. Quickly, it went behind tree five; it  certainly had everyone's attention by now.  As it came out into the open -- what a surprise: a Great Horned Owl!  It landed in the open area by the pond and the scope shot was enjoyed by all!"

- Joel

What a neat sighting! While there are certainly appropriate trees for owls all over Hazel Bazemore and the river bottoms, it's unusual to have one literally drop in on the watch!

A little side note; periodically in these reports, you might see more references to "tree number 3" etc. We have six major trees around the watch site numbered, literally, with placards to ID them, and we use them to ground the direction and elevation of our observations that occur in line of sight of the trees. We did this in 1997 to help visitors to the site understand where we were looking, and it proved to be a lifesaver for everyone involved. Just you try describing the small kettle that's at "2 o'clock off that fuzzy cloud donut over there" when said cloud donut is busily dissipating before anyone can throw a bino on it! Actually, we do a fair amount of that sort of sighting in, too, but you know what I mean!

The rest of the story for the day; check out those Mississippi kite numbers! Not bad! Joel says the kites kept on schedule, and came through between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm, as they have been during this watch. Kettles were decent; Joel reports the largest was 260 strong (and was also the lowest in the sky, as well). Other kettles were much higher, and kettle sizes ranged from 114, 65, and 84, and smaller. Some good help on the hill today; Joel reports 6 observers and 5 visitors.

Species              Day Season
Osprey               0     3
Swallow-tailed Kite  0     5
Mississippi Kite     509   2075
Cooper's Hawk        0     2
Red-shouldered Hawk  1     10
Broad-winged Hawk    1     47
Swainson's Hawk      9     49
White-tailed Hawk    0     1
Red-tailed Hawk      0     21
American Kestrel     0     2
Unidentified Raptors 34    46
Total                554   2261

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Daily reports for the various Texas hawk watches are archived on the Texas Hawk Watch pages of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi's web site at:

 http://www.electrotex.com/aoc/
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Non-raptor Species Day List
Date:   August 28, 1998

ANHINGA 385
GREAT BLUE HERON
GREAT EGRET
CATTLE EGRET
GREEN HERON
WOOD STORK 8
BLACK VULTURE
TURKEY VULTURE
WHITE-TAILED KITE
MISSISSIPPI KITE
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
BROAD-WINGED HAWK
SWAINSON'S HAWK
WHITE-TAILED HAWK
KILLDEER
BLACK-NECKED STILT
LESSER YELLOWLEGS
UPLAND SANDPIPER
LAUGHING GULL
ROCK DOVE
WHITE-WINGED DOVE
MOURNING DOVE
INCA DOVE
COMMON GROUND-DOVE
WHITE-TIPPED DOVE
GREAT HORNED OWL
COMMON NIGHTHAWK
CHIMNEY SWIFT
BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD
GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER
LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER
BROWN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER
GREAT KISKADEE
COUCH'S KINGBIRD
EASTERN KINGBIRD 1
SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 2
PURPLE MARTIN
CAVE SWALLOW
BARN SWALLOW
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER
NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE
EUROPEAN STARLING
WHITE-EYED VIREO
WILSON'S WARBLER 1
NORTHERN CARDINAL
DICKCISSEL
OLIVE SPARROW
GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE
BRONZED COWBIRD
ORCHARD ORIOLE
HOUSE SPARROW
TOTAL Species: 52
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Questions and comments on this list to:

Glenn Swartz
Coastal Bend Records Compiler
Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch
Corpus Christi, TX
Email: glennswartz@worldnet.att.net
_______________________

Daily reports for the various Texas hawk watches are archived on the Texas
Hawk Watch pages of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi's web site: