Report Date: 10/10/98
Corpus Christi NEXRAD Images: 0900 hours, 1300 hours, 1500 hours, 1730 hours
On Saturday, October 10, 1998 at 11:33 a.m., central daylight time, a kettle of approximately 2,300 broadwing hawks flew over Hazel Bazemore County Park, Nueces County, Texas. It's not quite certain which one it was, but one of those broadwing hawks became the one millionth raptor to fly over a single site in a single season in the United States and Canada.
A series of NEXRAD images I downloaded during the day for the Corpus Christi area are posted on the web site under the page for today's report, for those interested in migration via radar. Wish Bill and I could have been there; we hawked vicariously instead through the radar. My "chocolate radar' went off; I just KNEW we were gonna have a good day today! I think the radar bears it out.
Tonight's post recording this historic U.S. hawk watch season of unprecendented proportions is hereby dedicated with great love, admiration and respect to one of the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch at Hazel Bazemore County Park's most stalwart and loyal supporters and a watch veteran of some years, Dr. Hugh Carter Whatley. From all of us at the Hazel Bazemore Fall 1998 Hawk Watch to you, Carter; this one millionth broadwing is for you!
Dedication to a cause such as that exhibited by Dr. Carter Whatley deserves a little more introduction, to those who may not yet know him. Dr. Whatley is a professor who teaches government and political science on the Texas A&M Univ. campus in Corpus Christi, and was one of the core hawk watchers responsible for introducing so many of us to the hawk watch at Hazel Bazemore, including Bill and I (I can still remember my general reaction back in the early 90's when he mentioned it: "You do WHAT out there? You're kidding, right?" ... then we saw it for ourselves.). Nearly everyone ever introduced by Carter to the raptor project who saw their first kettle of any size was quickly absorbed into this wholly voluntary effort, and we all quickly became ambassadors to the project. Carter voluntary served as the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch Coordinator for years, until health concerns last year required him to adjust the level of his involvement in some activities. Carter also established the first web site for the Coastal Bend Hawk Watch (now the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, as it's more commonly come to be known). Those original pages remain on line and formed the core of what became the Texas Hawk Watches pages, which I later incorporated into the Audubon Outdoor Club's web site. I personally owe Carter a great debt of thanks for his training and patience in listening to my reams of questions while learning the mystical language of html, and what to do during my one-year stint as hawk watch coordinator in 1997. Carter continues to come to the hill and help "bring in the hawks" as he is able, but has now moved into a new phase of his own life with a diagnosis last year of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease). Carter continues to teach at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, and continues to inspire all who know him by showing us how to rise above the physical limits of life to find new ways of doing things while maintaining dignity and quality of life.
Another sincere and heartfelt group expression of appreciation also must go to all those other souls who began this hawk watch effort so many years ago (mid 1970's, near as we can tell). Some of those folks no longer live in the area, but remain strong in birding. Of late, we must acknowledge and thank the contributions of John M. Economidy and Glenn and Jimmy Swartz, who have been the heart and soul of hawk watching at Hazel Bazemore for at least the last decade; since the late 1980's. Glenn and Jimmy spend a lot of their personal time guiding interested birders to all the wonderful avian species that go through Hazel Bazemore and the Coastal Bend area. Glenn, as you know, is one of our two official HWI counters, and is also the Coastal Bend/Audubon Outdoor Club Bird Records Database Compiler. John conducted the first 10-day watches and helped to put our little park on the international hawk migration map with his diligent seasonal reports as Texas Regional Editor to the Hawk Migration Association of North America. John continues to come to watch when his busy San Antonio law practice allows him a break, and he and Glenn and Jimmy continue to train new hawk watchers by their generosity and example.
Joel Simon came to the hill with Hawk Watch International's first 90-consecutive-day watch in the fall of 1997, and is the current hawk watch coordinator. HWI founder Steve Hoffman's dedication to raptor migration monitoring has enabled Hazel Bazemore to begin comprehensive data-gathering to set baseline datasets for raptor patterns. As Joel said tonight, after our latest round of telephone conversations (mostly along the lines of "I can't believe it! We really did it!"), today's mark was reached only through the efforts of the many, many people who have put in so much time over so many years, to bring this watch to where it is today. Thank you, Joel, for all your efforts, too!
Boy, this is hard to come down from; guess I won't be getting much sleep tonight, ha! Okay, anyway, nitty gritty time, for those still reading this far <grin!> .... As for watch conditions today, Joel says it was feast, then famine. Glenn says simply that it was a loooo-nnnnngggg day! The morning started with eight observers on hand. Joel notes that as expected, there was indeed a really nice liftoff this morning of 14,000 hawks, setting the single-morning lift-off record for this fall season. As the morning progressed, six observers remained on the hill to count. On hand for the breaking of the one million mark: Joel Simon, Glenn Swartz, Bob Creglow, Jimmy Swartz, Greg Rider, and "I got a kettle!" Ken. (I'm mortified, but I don't think I've ever really known Ken's last name. He's got his own special spot on the hill, though, and he's hell on wheels at spotting those kettles!)
Ahhh, this is a season to remember, all right. Onward to the numbers and my never-say-die attempts at trying to get the darn things lined up <grin!>.
OH!! I wish you could all see what just happened! My wonderful husband, Bill, just brought in some dinner for me to eat at the computer while I draft up this post, and he just laid two Snickers bite-sized candy bars on my plate!! How perfect!! A chocolate toast, from all of us to all of you other watchers! All ye who doubt, beware! Verily, the chocolate doth work!
Okay, I'm getting punchy now; time to go! Here's the full spreadsheet:
Species.................Today...(Season-to-date)
Black Vultures..........11......(60)
Turkey Vultures.........4.......(12)
Osprey..................5.......(168)
Swallow-tailed Kite.....0.......(6)
WT/BS Kite..............0.......(4)
Mississippi Kite........0.......(3582)
No. Harrier.............11......(146)
Sharp-shinned Hawk......65......(972)
Cooper's Hawk...........8.......(179)
Harris's Hawk...........0.......(5)
Red-shouldered Hawk.....1.......(38)
Broad-winged Hawk.......22575...(986985)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 9-27, 13 on 10-8)
................................(NOTE: 184 dm on 10-9!)
................................(NOTE: 15 dm on 10-10!)
Swainson's Hawk.........11......(6733)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-3, 1 choc morph
10-7)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-9)
White-tailed Hawk.......0.......(3)
Red-tailed Hawk.........2.......(106)
Crested Caracara........1.......(1)
Am. Kestrel.............19......(406)
Merlin..................0.......(25)
Peregrine Falcon........6.......(150)
Prairie Falcon..........0.......(3)
Unidentified Accip......10......(244)
Unidentified Buteo......0.......(17)
Unidentified Falcon.....0.......(28)
Unidentified Raptor.....389.....(4332)
Today's total...........23118...(1,004,216) (Ho-leeee smokes!)
Joel's dickie bird surprise of the day was a Blue Jay! Says it was the first one in the area he can recall in several years.
Glenn's Day Birds:
1
1
2
52
20
4
14
2
5
27
11
1
9613
2
1
2
1
8
1
3
1
4
7
1
1
1
1
27
Glenn Swartz
Audubon Outdoor Club Database Compiler
Gswartz@electrotex.com
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Keep that chocolate flowing!
- Patty, Joel and Glenn
