The official season  started slowly but that is probably good for our new hawk
watchers. Dick Benoit started the unofficial season Aug 1 and is teaching us
all about when Swallow-tailed Kites migrate.

Hawks Seen 8/15/98

Broad-winged Hawk  7
Swainson's Hawk  2
?raptor

Our hawk watchers got pratice counting birds in a kettle when a flock of 135
Woodstorks came by. Swallows, gnatcatchers and a variety of other migrants
also came by. 2 Caracaras were seen up the road but never made it down to the
point.

Smith Point  is on the northeast side of Galveston Bay in Chambers County
Texas.

- Winnie Burkett Hawk watch coordinator

Date:         Fri, 14 Aug 1998 07:38:58 EDT
Reply-To: WBBurkett@AOL.COM
Sender: Audubon birding discussion list for Texas
              <TEXBIRDS@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG>
From: WBBurkett@AOL.COM
Subject:      [TEXBIRDS] 1998 SPHW
To: TEXBIRDS@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG
X-UIDL: c23a8bf828dd7cb20740356c77cfa853
 

Smith Point Hawk Watch 1998

Since the Smith Point Hawk Watch officially starts this Saturday I thought I
would give you a little rundown on how things will work this year.

Thanks to the generosity of Exxon Baytown and Ann Abshier and Jerry
Blackstone we have been able to hire two (actually it is three I will explain
shortly) full time hawk watchers this year. Starting on 8/15 we will have
Rebecca Smith and Steve Seibol. Rebecca is from Wisconsin and when I tried to
prepare her for Smith Point , you know heat bugs etc, she said "Oh , don't
worry I've done field work in South America." She doesn't even like air
conditioning is she ever ready for Smith Point. Steve is from Kansas and has
been working in the Pacific Northwest. Steve will only be staying here till
Sept 18,  then Richard  Gibbons who grew up in Texarkana and now lives in
Austin, will take his place on the hawk watch tower.

Even though we will have two official hawk watchers we still  need you
experienced birders as volunteers. There are two main jobs for volunteers. 1)
Help spot count and keep track of hawks. The sky is big and there are never
too many eyes. Our official hawk watchers will 2 days a week off to rest their
eyes or catch up with their sleep or what ever. On those days we really need
experienced volunteers to keep the quality of the hawk watch high. As many of
you experienced birders have full time jobs please consider volunteering for a
day or two on the week-end.  2) To monitor non raptor migration. In the past
we have asked that non raptors be monitored all day but have found it is
difficult to keep up this effort . What we are hoping is that this year
migration monitoring be done for 2 to 4 hours in the morning using the
Partners in Flight Migration Monitoring Protocol. Of course you can count
birds all day if you want to.  We will keep track of unusual birds seen after
the migration monitoring period.

Some volunteers have already signed up for one day a week those are:

Dick Benoit Saturday
Mary Dodson  Mondays
David Sarkozi  Wednesdays
Bob Gallaway   some Fridays

As you can see there are still lots of days open.

This year the results of the hawk watch will be posted on Texbirds daily  by
the official hawk watchers.

If you would like to volunteer to help or have any questions please contact
me or GCBO.

Winnie Burkett
Coordinator
Smith Point Hawk Watch