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 29, 1998
 

Some days, it's just plain fun to be on the hill! Today, we were treated to the rare sight of some red-shouldered hawks' territorial "get out of my yard" displays. There are three RSHA's resident at the hill, "Tex" the Texanus and a buddy of Tex's come each fall to overwinter here. This year, a first year RSHA joined the party; not sure if it's Tex's chick or not. Another RSHA evidently made its way southward across the sky today within sight of the locals, and the locals were airborne in an instant, screaming their displeasure loud enough for the whole county to hear. The "visitor" wasn't quite ready to leave the area so soon, and cruised around, checking out the scenery and sizing up the local greeting committee. What we saw above our heads were four upset RSHA's circling and diving and putting on some nifty aerial acrobatics; then lazily circling in thermals as if they were pals for life, before making a run at the new one again. There was no real contact; no injuries; it was all flash and dash, but it was great fun to watch and even greater fun to hear (the RSHA scream is legendary but I didn't know RSHA's also made a grunting kind of call sound when they're upset; that was neat!).

Kites are coming through in good numbers now; highest single day count this season. The haze conditions were tough today to see through; the kites weren't breaking out until they were practically overhead.

One note of caution; when your neck muscles are giving out and you want to get prone to count, think carefully before lying on the black bed-liner of a pickup truck. A couple of us probably look like steaks on a grill; forgot how HOT those suckers get in the direct south Texas sun! (We counted up all the kettles, though; didn't miss a one, ha!)

Today's numbers from Glenn:

Species  Day Season
Osprey   1 4
Swallow-tailed Kite  0 5
Mississippi Kite  532  2607
Cooper's Hawk  0 2
Red-shouldered Hawk  1  11
Broad-winged Hawk  3  50
Swainson's Hawk  10  59
White-tailed Hawk 0 1
Red-tailed Hawk  1  22
American Kestrel 0 2
Unidentified Buteo 1 1
Unidentified Raptors  1  47
Total    550  2811

Resident raptors: 2 black vultures, 12 turkey vultures, 2 White-tailed hawks, 3 Red-shouldered hawks, 1 osprey

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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/
_______________________

Non-raptor Day Birds:

Dicky Birds (Without Hawks)
Anhinga 296
Great Egret 2
Green Heron 1
White Ibis 1
Wood Stork 3
Northern Pintail 17
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Upland Sandpiper 14
Western Sandpiper 3
Least Sandpiper 2
Laughing Gull 2
Eurasian Collared-dove 1
White-winged Dove 4
Mourning Dove 7
Inca Dove 14
Common Ground-dove 3
White-tipped Dove 1
Greater Roadrunner 1
Chimney Swift 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 3
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-pewee 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 2
Couch's Kingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 4
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
Purple Martin 3
Barn Swallow 7
Tufted Titmouse 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
Northern Mockingbird 4
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Loggerhead Shrike 1
European Starling 3
White-eyed Vireo 2
Northern Cardinal 5
Olive Sparrow 1
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 2
House Sparrow
Total Species: 54

List Queries to:
Glenn Swartz
Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch
Corpus Christi
glennswartz@worldnet.att.net