Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   08-15-99

Greetings, all:

Well, today was another hot one, all right. Still and all, we had a lot more hawks today to help keep our minds off the heat, along with a special treat later in the day's heat. No swallow-tailed kites today for the second of two days of the special STKI watch by TPWD; sorry, guys; they just didn't come visit us this weekend. We did have a nice assortment today, though; here's the day's raptor rundown:

2  Ospreys
31 Mississippi Kites
1  Cooper's Hawk
11 Red-tailed Hawks
1  Broad-winged Hawk
4  Swainson's Hawks
2  Red-shouldered Hawks
4  Unknown raptors

Day total:  56

We beat last year's record for this date by a long country mile. Does it seem to you guys that the hawks're moving through earlier this year, too?

Good day birds today, too, including 632 anhingas, 12 wood storks, 2 white pelicans, 12 white-faced ibis and 142 white ibis. Other birds today (in order we saw them, for the most part):

turkey vultures (10 or so resident)
black vultures (pair)
bronze cowbird
great kiskadee
blue-grey gnatcatcher
ladder-backed woodpecker
Eurasian collared dove
brown-crested flycatcher
loggerhead shrike
Carolina wren
yellow warblers (all over the county, from reports)
olive-sided flycatcher
Upland sandpipers (think I called it a plover yesterday; sorry)
golden-fronted woodpecker
dickcissel (2)
groove-billed ani (lots, again)
white-tip dove
olive sparrow
white-eyed vireo
orchard oriole (2)
white-winged doves (tons)
American cardinal
killdeer
chimney swift
scissor-tailed flycatcher (4)
great egret
greater yellowlegs
lesser yellowlegs
tri-colored heron
long-billed curlew
ground dove
roadrunner
least sandpiper
Western sandpiper
black-necked stilt
American coot
Couch's kingbird (3)
barn swallow
cliff swallows
cave swallows
hummingbirds

Please try to make an effort to get out and support your local watches. The help is always appreciated, as is the company, and you'll see some fun stuff! Today for instance, we got to watch a red-tailed hawk getting smacked in the head by a swallow that apparently resented the hawk migrating through its airspace. Quite a sight! The red-tail took half a dozen good hits by the swallow, but of course, the red-tail hardly flinched, just swooped over a bit, and continued right on its course. The swallow finally gave up after getting some good dive bombing practice. Another red-tail pulled some high-G aerobatics to catch something in mid-air, or so it appeared. Couldn't quite figure out what it was after but it executed some nice tight quick-snaps to try to get it. There's always something to see at a watch!

And, if you're lucky enough to have a wonderful cook on site, you might even get to enjoy some homemade ice cream to cool the heat. Yes, you betcha, it certainly was chocolate ice cream on the hill today, with some amazingly rich other goodies thrown in -- vanilla chips and pecans, too ... wow! Thank you VERY much, Glenn Swartz!). And no, before you ask ... he's not for loan; at least not until OUR watch is over, <grin!>!

Cheers and good birding,
Patty