Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1998

Report Date:  10/19/98

The skies weren't quite through with us today, and the rains may continue tomorrow. Glenn says only five and a half inches at the watch site for the last two days, but that's enough to shut it down when it takes all day to drop. As you figured; no hawk watch today!

So, hey, it's been awhile since I've had anything to write about, so you get to hear about MY watch on Mustang Island (19-mile long barrier island just off the coast of Texas near Corpus Christi; the city of Port Aransas is on its north head) instead, ha! And, once again this week, my Mustang Island hawk watch had more hawks than the HB hawk watch, but all mine were perched on poles, headed into the winds, and waiting out the morning's storms. Most of the Mustang Island hawks are residents, both year-round and winter. I tallied 28 raptors in the morning (8 ospreys; 13 white-tailed hawks including the twins and the single chick from this spring; 2 caracaras (mated pair); 2 kestrels; and 3 peregrines. Most of the white-tails were still hunting dinner when I headed home tonight; the peregrines and ospreys were all perched and ready for the night. Well, except for two ospreys that hunted one of the bay's tidal flat areas. One of those ospreys provided some neat entertainment.

This bird was a young osprey, apparently in the process of learning how to deal with dinner that didn't want to cooperate. The osprey cruised over the tidal flats at the bay's edge, and finally saw a potential blue plate special. He dove into the water and floundered around a bit, finally got a grip on the fish, and tried to take off. Well, the fish must've had other ideas, cause the osprey went right back into the drink, floundered around a little more, then finally lifted off, shook off several times in midair, and headed on a low trajectory for the nearest picking post it could find. A low utility pole marking an underwater line apparently met the need (it was handy and it was low; the osprey was struggling to hang onto a pretty large mullet, which was really getting an attitude at being taken for dinner!). When the osprey landed, one talon dragged over the edge of the pole; the one with the fish in it. Turns out there was not quite a large enough surface to drag that fish up and on, to start eating it. And, to make matters worse, the osprey had grabbed the mullet by the tail, and was hanging on to it and trying to figure out how to maneuver the fish around. It tugged and reached around, and snipped off a few scales (which set the fish off to flopping again), then drapred its talon over the edge for awhile (resting?), then went through the whole process again, and again, and again. Pull, reach, peck, flop (that's the fish's part!), drape, rest, yell about it. I sat in my car about 100 feet away watching this poor bird trying to maneuver this fish, and each time the osprey lifted the fish up by the tail and tried to lay it across the top of the pole, the fish's weight would drag the fish back off the pole before the osprey could figure out how to get its other talon on it. Every once in awhile, the osprey would look around and sound off; to my ears, after 15 minutes and a number of unsuccessful attempts to get that fish to cooperate, it sounded like that bird was getting really frustrated! The fish flopped as much as possible, of course, trying to get loose, but when I finally had to leave due to low light and more errands to run on the way home, the osprey looked like it was finally starting to get more of an upper hand. Or talon! At least, the efforts to eat the fish were looking more successful, ha! Guess this guy hadn't learned the fine art of manipulating the fish in midair to get a better grip on it. Actually, he was so soaked with water after his double-dipping that the water flew off him in sheets each time he shook off; it was all he could do just to reach the pole with the fish still in his talon, ha!

Well, let's see what tomorrow brings (besides more rain, ha!).

Species.................Today...(Season-to-date)
Black Vultures..........0.......(77)
Turkey Vultures.........0.......(260)
Osprey..................0.......(176)
Swallow-tailed Kite.....0.......(6)
WT/BS Kite..............0.......(4)
Mississippi Kite........0.......(3583)
No. Harrier.............0.......(167)
Sharp-shinned Hawk......0.......(1109)
Cooper's Hawk...........0.......(223)
Harris's Hawk...........0.......(5)
Red-shouldered Hawk.....0.......(38)
Broad-winged Hawk.......0.......(987199)
................................(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.........0.......(6773)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-3
................................(NOTE: 1 choc morph 10-7)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-9)
White-tailed Hawk.......0.......(3)
Red-tailed Hawk.........0.......(113)
Crested Caracara........0.......(1)
Am. Kestrel.............0.......(431)
Merlin..................0.......(26)
Peregrine Falcon........0.......(157)
Prairie Falcon..........0.......(5)
Unidentified Accip......0.......(291)
Unidentified Buteo......0.......(25)
Unidentified Falcon.....0.......(36)
Unidentified Raptor.....0.......(4367)
Today's total...........0.......(1,005,075)

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Patty's dickie birds on Mustang:

1 redhead duck (state park)
1 ruddy duck (state park)
250 speckled belly geese (white fronted geese)

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Keep that chocolate flowing!

- Patty, Joel and Glenn