Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1998

Report Date:  09/27/98

Wow, how about that. Another six-digit day. What a great time on the hill today! Once the mosquitoes drained all the blood they could from us in the morning and left us alone, as Bob Creglow noted, the hawks started coming and kept us hopping most of the day.

Before going to today's count, let me do a little paperwork with you from yesterday. There were a few raptors inadvertantly left off the count from the last hour, due to paperwork delays from personnel involved in the Celebration of Flight evening event, a wonderful presentation by Pete Dunne. So, those of you maintaining daily records, add one more broadwing to the count, one more sharpie, five more Cooper's, two more kestrels, one more merlin, one more peregrine and five more UA's. Grand final official total for 9-26-98: 306,991. Holy cow.

Okay, now for today. There's stuff to write about but I'm just so darned tired right now, it'll have to wait a little. Suffice it to say we worked the pants off Steve Hoffman of Hawk Watch International again today, and put Pete Dunne to work again in the morning before letting him catch his plane back home. Pete, you always have a place with us; we thoroughly enjoyed your visit! Anyone at Cape May with email, please be sure to let Pete know we'll be expecting him and his Cape May group at the next watch! Last Chance Forever raptor rehabilitators came out from San Antonio, Texas and allowed us the opportunity to see first-hand some of their incredible rehab results. Some of their education partners on hand included a Harris's hawk, a crested caracara, a black vulture (totally charming!), a peregrine falcon, a barred owl (very impressive!), a great-horned owl, and a really special treat, a European imperial eagle, one of only two in this country. These folks do truly amazing work and run approximately 65-80% on releases back to the wild of the 250 or so raptors they receive each year. That's a phenomenal record, as any rehabber will tell you. They'll be on hand during the week to give shows to area school children. We all got a large charge out of LCF Education Director Sherry McDaniel's t-shirt that read "Raptors Rule!" on the front and "Everything else is just LUNCH" on the back. Gotta find out where to order some of those .....!

Meanwhile, on the hill .... unusually high numbers of accipiters and falcons are still coming through; a banner season this year. More dogfights (not serious, of course) between harriers, Cooper's and other assorted migrants as they passed over; highly entertaining!

Okay, I'll save the rest for later; gotta go find my bed before my head hits the computer desk .....

Can we dare hope to squeeze yet one more six-digit day out of tomorrow??! Come find out ...... !

Species                 Today   (Season-to-date)
Black Vultures          0       (38)
Turkey Vultures         0       (3)
Osprey                  13      (71)
Swallow-tailed Kite     0       (6)
Mississippi Kite        6       (3547)
No. Harrier             14      (67)
Sharp-shinned Hawk      137     (385)
Cooper's Hawk           17      (67)
Harris's Hawk           0       (2)
Red-shouldered Hawk     2       (32)
Broad-winged Hawk       102845  (526162)
Swainson's Hawk         9       (196)
White-tailed Hawk       0       (3)
Red-tailed Hawk         5       (60)
Am. Kestrel             31      (146)
Merlin                  1       (18)
Peregrine Falcon        11      (76)
Prairie Falcon          0       (1)
Unidentified Accip      14      (101)
Unidentified Buteo      0       (15)
Unidentified Falcon     2       (15)
Unidentified Raptor     3       (108)
Today's total:          113111  (531120)

Glenn's day bird list:

        on hold til the dust settles!