After much soul-searching, I have decided NOT to update the previous individual daily reports with the corrected numbers, as I would then have to go back and revise every single solitary number on every single solitary report since then. Suffice it to say, from this point forward, use the spreadsheet for the final say-so on the numbers by species by day; all corrections will be posted to it and it will be the final arbitrator.

My apologies, and my gratitude for those who understand and are hanging in here with us.

  -- Patty Beasley

Date:         Thu, 5 Nov 1998 18:43:31 -0800
From: Patty Beasley <pbeasley@ELECTROTEX.COM>
Subject:      [TEXBIRDS] Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, 11/05/98

Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1998
Report Date:  11/05/98

Well, today was not weather friendly:

------------------

Sat on the hill for a couple of hours today (11/5). Didn't see anything.

Dicky bird list;
1       Turkey Vulture
3       Inca Dove
2       Northern Mocking bird
3       Total
 

Glenn Swartz
Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi
Database Compiler
Thanks to my provider; Electrotex Inc.
gswartz@electrotex.com

-----------

Keep that chocolate flowing!

- Patty Beasley, Joel Simon, Glenn Swartz and Greg Rider

Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1998
Date:  11/05/98

The Fall 1998 Season numbers have just been audited through October 17,
1998 and some errors have been detected and counts corrected. Broadwing
hawk numbers were the most changed, due primarily to one large difference
between the numbers of broadwings listed on the September 28, 1998 data
sheet and the numbers actually calculated from those entries. For those who
follow our watch by day, please make the following corrections in your tables:

Aug. 25: total for Miss. kites should read 617 (up from 612)
Sep. 13: total Miss. kites should be 145 (up from 144)
Sep. 27: total Cooper's hawks should be 18 (up from 17)
Sep. 27: total broadwings should be 102,837 (down from 102,845)
Sep. 28: total broadwings should be 183,034 (down from 203,814)
Oct. 08: total broadwings should be 9,998 (up from 6,406)
Oct. 08: total Swainson's should be 3,479 (up from 3,472)
Oct. 10: total unknown raptors should be 388 (down from 389)
Oct. 11: total unknown raptors should be 2 (up from 1)

Now, plugging these corrections into the spreadsheet shows the following
updated species totals for the season so far (through November 5, 1998):

Species.................Season-to-date
Black Vultures..........134
Turkey Vultures.........4,868
Osprey..................179
Swallow-tailed Kite.....6
WT/BS Kite..............6
Mississippi Kite........3,584
Bald Eagle..............2
No. Harrier.............177
Sharp-shinned Hawk......1,197
Cooper's Hawk...........250
Harris's Hawk...........5
Red-shouldered Hawk.....38
Broad-winged Hawk.......970,025
................................(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.........6,789
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-3
................................(NOTE: 1 choc morph 10-7)
................................(NOTE: 1 dm on 10-9)
White-tailed Hawk.......5
Red-tailed Hawk.........120
Crested Caracara........1
Am. Kestrel.............438
Merlin..................29
Peregrine Falcon........161
Prairie Falcon..........6
Unidentified Accip......316
Unidentified Buteo......25
Unidentified Falcon.....38
Unidentified Raptor.....4,377
Season's total..........992,776

-----------

Well, by now, you've no doubt noticed the total number of raptors for the
season has fallen short of the one million mark. To say we were surprised
at the revised total would be a massive understatement.

"We got word of the new numbers and much to my amazement, the numbers are
correct" noted head counter Joel Simon. "But in my mind, it's still been a
great year. A million is just a number; we've still had a good season."

Joel and I just spent the last hour-plus on the phone double- and
triple-checking those numbers again since the audit sheets arrived today
from Hawk Watch International, and we managed to resolve a couple more
discrepancies in sheets that have yet to be audited. As noted earlier, data
sheets from August 15th through October 17, 1998 have been audited. Joel
and I are satisfied that our spreadsheets now balance with HWI's numbers
and with each other's spreadsheets through October 17.

The sheets indeed all balance out now, and the final numbers do indeed show
we have apparently not yet hit that "magic million" season mark for
raptors. With only ten days left in the watch, it's very doubtful we will
hit that mark. But that doesn't change the fact that we have still had one
hell of a watch season and we've still managed to break our own record from
last fall. It's hard to be very disappointed with those results already in
the bag. And, as Joel says, that just gives us something to work for next
year, since we now know it is within the realm of possibility to have one
million or more raptors cross one watch site in one season.

I guess the one question in everyone's mind by this point is, how could the
numbers have been so far off for that one day? Well, that was my first
question to Joel when he broke the news to me tonight, too! But actually,
it's very understandable, once you get the picture in your mind's eye as to
how the process goes. The data sheet for that day (September 28) was filled
literally margin to margin with notation after notation on kettles that
were being seen, by the hour. Apparently when the hour-long blocks were
counted up separately, the error occurred, and apparently occurred each
time the hour blocks were recounted. The mistake was then apparently
carried over to the totals when each hour was added up for the day's count.
I can tell you from experience that data recordings on six-figure days can
run veryveryvery close together and can often overlap other columns,
causing counters to draw new boundaries for the species (usually
broadwings) on the sheet as more kettles and groups are sighted and entered
on the datasheet. Those suckers get downright hard to read! Apparently, at
least one group of notations were counted twice on that day, and the
mistake carried over on the recounts. Nobody caught it! As careful as we
try to be on the scene, and during the post mortem after watch ends ....
mistakes can and still do happen.

So! Let me close with an addendum to an earlier post:  Dr. Carter Whatley,
the dedication still stands! It may not be the one millionth broadwing, or
raptor, but one of those 992,776 hawks to date broke our 1997 Fall record,
and we re-dedicate THAT bird to you!

Just wait til next year .... !!

And ... keep that chocolate flowing!

- Patty Beasley, Joel Simon, Glenn Swartz and Greg Rider