Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   09-18-99

Greetings all:

Another good day on the hill, and lots of visitors to help watch and lend moral support. Good broadwing kettles today, and they were all over the sky throughout the day. Most were high; clouds were about, but not enough to shove the broadies very low. The sharp-shinned hawks were thick today. Best bird of the day was the dark morph ferruginous. Excitement levels are high on the hill; we're anxiously awaiting the mega-flights heading our way from Michigan and points north.

Speaking of up north, for those of you not on the BirdHawk list, I've just gotta pass along one comment from tonight's Eastern Massachusetts Hawk Watch post by Jane Stein; do we ever empathize with you guys! Jane commented: "EMHW is considering petitioning the federal government to put cumulous clouds on the Endangered Species List. Another day of cloudless blue skies has us all buying stock in Visine." What a hoot!! Boy, there are lots of those sorts of days, aren't there!?

Clouds, or lack of, notwithstanding, hawk watches continue to break their own records up north; what a fun season this is shaping up to be! Kevin Graff, who counts from his backyard in Maryland, blasted his previous single-day record with 7,000 broadies passing over his backyard today. Another respectable day from Lake Erie's watch with over 28,000 (they had 501,000+ yesterday, blasting all their previous single-day records).

This weekend is the Rockport Hummer-Bird festival, just up the coast about thirty miles from Corpus Christi. Those little zippers came in just under the wire again this year, too; the second wave of hummers arrived just this past week, from reports. Extra feeders are out, and homes on the hummingbird tour are geared up for visitors. State wildlife banders were on site this morning at the Swartz's home near the hawk watch and managed to round up 50-60 for new bracelets. Also banded a hooded oriole in the same yard that apparently didn't mind the experience; it stayed around to continue eating from the nectar feeders.

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9....... Osprey (YTD: 51)
59...... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,437)
2....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 13)
43...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 79)
28...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 71)
20,768 . Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 91,011)
1....... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 61)
2....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 52)
1....... Ferruginous Hawk (dark morph juvenile) (YTD: 2)
2....... American Kestrel (YTD: 35)
1....... Merlin (YTD: 8)
3....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 25)
2....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 11)
7....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 19)
2....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 11)
2....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 73)

Total: 20,932 (YTD: 97,083)

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Here's a list of other day birds and resident raptors seen on the hill, too:

anhingas: 638
red-tailed hawk (winter residents)
red-shouldered hawk (winter residents)
olive sparrow
white-eyed vireo
Couch's kingbird
mockingbird
roadrunner
wood stork
double-crested cormorant
common nighthawk
whitefaced ibis
white ibis
American kestrel (winter resident)
great kiskadee
white-winged dove
common ground dove
inca dove
mourning dove
chimney swift
cave swallow
barn swallow
tree swallow
loggerhead shrike
brewer's blackbird
golden-fronted woodpecker
ruby-throated hummingbird
buff-bellied hummingbird
ash-throated flycatcher
yellow-breasted chat
American cardinal
Baltimore oriole
blue-winged teal
greater yellowlegs
Wilson's warbler (female)
belted kingfisher
laughing gull
titmouse
eastern kingbird
green heron


Cheers,
Patty Beasley
Joel Simon
Fernando Ramos
Ryan Wagner
and the rest of the HBHW cast and crew