Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1998
Report Date: 10/08/98
Hey, a report from Hazel posted before midnight; bet you thought you'd never see it this season, ha! Surprised me, too, ha!
Well! ... Well, well, well! Quite a collection on the logs today, with an excellent range of "specials" in addition to good overall numbers.
The small group of broadies we saw crash into the trees last night for a nap lifted off this morning. One turned out to be a dark-morph, and was nearly at treetop level, giving everyone at the watch the treat and view of a lifetime. From 10:00-11:00 watch time (Utah mountain time), 2543 more broadies winged over. The next two hours brought more good numbers, 1113 and 2411, respectively. Bigger news: that broadie hour of 2411 included an additional ELEVEN dark morphs in three different kettles. One additional dark morph between 13:00-14:00 watch time brought the day's DM total to 13! Shades of Fall 1995!
But there's more! That same hour (13:35, to be exact) ALSO included ... are you all ready for this? .... a completely white, with NO color whatsoever, albinistically plumaged redtail hawk! The bird was naked eye visible to spot it up, but flew over at a relatively high height (is that redundant?). Binos were needed for details; examinations found no hints of color on any parts that could be observed (all from underneath as the hawk soared overhead). Glenn noted soft parts were not discernible. Jo "Eagle Eyes" Creglow made the call on this one; attagirl! I was so busy watching two "normal" redtails nearby that were moving in the same general area with the albinistic that I at first blew it off as an airplane (boy, gonna take awhile to live THAT one down, ha! Hey, there WAS a white airplane passing; just not in that part of the sky at the moment, ha!) Jo stuck with it and finally got our attention back on it from the other passing raptors, and we all dropped our collective jaws. The albinistic redtail, luckily, was not in too much of a hurry to speed through, and gave us all a nice long look as it soared on overhead (that was one case of hawk neck that no one complained about). Then ... yep, there's more! .... at 15:05 watch time, another goodie: a rufous-morph redtailed hawk. The rufous morph, interestingly enough, followed the same track as the albinistically plumaged (by the way, as you noticed, we're not calling the white redtail an albino proper; we couldn't get any eye definition for that determination).
Swainson's once again knocked our socks off; from 9:00-10:00 watch time they flooded in, and we recorded 2990 for that hour. The next hour brought another 440, then they trickled the rest of the day. Well, sort of. You'll notice our unknown raptor number is phenomenally high. Well, that's 'cause those raptors were so far out, we knew they were there, and we knew they were kettling and streaming, but we couldn't separate the broadies from the Swainson's from the other odds and ends that often accompany large flights. From 9:00-10:00 watch time, 970 unknowns were logged; another 600 were logged from 10:00-11:00. Just too far to make positive IDs. The major flights were on the west side of the watch, headed south, so hopefully Cactus Charlie was getting some birds, too, in Duval County to our west and south.
Our last treat bird, since we didn't get a ferruginous yet (any day now, though ... they're on our guest list), was the third prairie falcon of the season. Sweet view of a gorgeous falcon.
Winds at the watch site today were negligible; temps were a little warmer than yesterday, but still cool on our skins (max hi was 29 C) and the biggest factor of all, the cloud cover, was an absolute stone-cold zero! Unless you count the haze all over the upper stratosphere that allowed the raptors to reach a thousand feet or so, then literally disappear from view in the blink of an eye. (Anyone wanting to rent or purchase some seriously fried red eyeballs, let us know; we have a few pairs around here somewhere .....).
Ahh, what a way to spend a day! Tomorrow, tomorrow .....! Onward to the weekend; looks like it'll be good, too!
Species Today (Season-to-date)
Black Vultures 3 (60)
Turkey Vultures 0 (8)
Osprey 1 (158)
Swallow-tailed Kite 0 (6)
Mississippi Kite 0 (3581)
No. Harrier 3 (128)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 27 (865)
Cooper's Hawk 13 (158)
Harris's Hawk 0 (4)
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 (34)
Broad-winged Hawk 6406 (909344)
(NOTE: 1 dm on 9-27, 13 on 10-8)
Swainson's Hawk 3472 (6685)
(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-3, 1 choc morph 10-7)
White-tailed Hawk 0 (3)
Red-tailed Hawk 8 (101)
Am. Kestrel 6 (375)
Merlin 0 (25)
Peregrine Falcon 1 (140)
Prairie Falcon 1 (3)
Unidentified Accip 5 (229)
Unidentified Buteo 1 (17)
Unidentified Falcon 0 (27)
Unidentified Raptor 1578 (1729)
Today's total: 11526 (923681)
Other non-raptors: 438 white pelicans; 243 anhingas; 7 white-faced ibis. One unusual sighting: a lone puma (not at the watch site proper, but about a mile or so north. Spotted by Vicki Simon from her back yard bluff overlooking the Nueces River and flood plains below).
Entertained today by a local female harrier down in the riverbottoms of the park that looked like it was bouncing on a trampoline as it popped up, then down, then up, then down, trying to snatch up a field mouse that was giving it a royal run for its life. Took the harrier a dozen or so pop-ups and downs, and some quick twisty wing work to keep from pancaking on the ground, but she finally got her lunch! Amazing, the control these birds have at such short, close quarters!
Glenn's Day Birds:
127 American White Pelican
1 Neotropic Cormorant
170 Anhinga
1 Great Blue Heron
3 Great Egret
1 Snowy Egret
60 Cattle Egret
6 White-faced Ibis
5 Wood Stork
26 Greater White-fronted Goose
2 Black Vulture
2 Turkey Vulture
3 Northern Harrier
5 Sharp-shinned Hawk
3 Cooper's Hawk
2 Red-shouldered Hawk
824 Broad-winged Hawk
12 Swainson's Hawk
1 White-tailed Hawk
8 Red-tailed Hawk
3 American Kestrel
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Prairie Falcon
1 Long-billed Curlew
3 Laughing Gull
3 Eurasian Collared-dove
7 White-winged Dove
1 Mourning Dove
6 Inca Dove
4 Chimney Swift
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Golden-fronted Woodpecker
1 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
1 Great Kiskadee
3 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
1 Green Jay
1 Carolina Wren
1 House Wren
5 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
4 Northern Mockingbird
1 Long-billed Thrasher
2 White-eyed Vireo
2 Northern Cardinal
1 Olive Sparrow
39 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Great-tailed Grackle
46 Total Sp.
Glenn Swartz
Audubon Outdoor Club Database Compiler
gswartz@electrotex.com
Keep that chocolate flowing!