Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   09-20-99

Greetings all. Without further ado, here's Joel's report from the hill:

"Today was the second Ozone Action Day in a row. Skies were cloudless and dirty blue, hawks were flying very high, and we probably missed a lot."

"We have developed a theory about the large number of Prairie Falcons (14 after today). All but two had poor attitudes, meaning they went by low and in no great hurry, if they had been kestrels we would have assumed they were our locals. In the two instances that we had multiples together, they were "playing", interacting without an aggressive attitude. Other people have reported Prairie Falcons in the area (both east and west of our site) that were acting like residents, sitting or hunting. It is entirely possible we are counting the same few falcons more than once. But like any other raptor that passes our site, if we have no evidence of it being a resident,
it goes on the count."

- Joel

And now for Patty's two-cents' worth (with thanks to John Economidy's excellent data tracking ability): here's some more food for thought re the unusually high number of prairie falcons. The western states have had excellent rainfall this year, while the eastern states were drier than average. This allowed the western prey bases to build to considerably higher populations than average. Good prey base = more hatches and good hatch/survival rates = more prairie falcons and other western species, and that = more migrants.

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45...... Black Vulture (YTD: 102)
2....... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 3)
0....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 28)
2....... Osprey (YTD: 57)
9....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,447)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 1)
0....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 16)
45...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 147)
12...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 104)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 5)
0....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 15)
29,868 . Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 161,735)
5....... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 71)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (9/18: dark morph juvenile) (YTD: 2)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 3)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 2)
1....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 56)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 2)
1....... American Kestrel (YTD: 38)
1....... Merlin (YTD: 9)
4....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 31)
2....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 14)
1....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 21)
1....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 19)
4....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 11)
1....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 74)

Total: 30,004 (YTD: 168,019)

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