Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   09-23-99

Hi everyone,

Well. Well, well, well. There's just no telling what will shoot through a watch site!

One thing I do want to know ... just HOW MUCH chocolate were you guys eating up there today?! LOL! Holy smokes!!

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"Counting three species of non-migrants we had 19 species of raptor; will have to check our records to see if this is the high for our site. One was a new species for Hazel Bazemore Park, an Aplomado Falcon. It was seen at 10:10 am flying low over the golf course. Fernando Rincon was counting the lift-off to the west and the bird flew by at eye level about 300 feet out, an easy ID for him as he worked on a study of this falcon in Mexico (of course I and most everyone out front missed it). Frank Peace went to the airport weather station and pulled up radar images of hawks just south of Victoria. He gave us a conservative estimate of 30,000 to arrive by 3 pm. Between 3:15 and 3:35 we counted a whopping 56,000 Broad-winged Hawks."

- Joel

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0....... Black Vulture (YTD: 102)
2....... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 5)
0....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 30)
1....... Osprey (YTD: 69)
3....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,480)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 2) (9-22 imm.)
8....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 46)
30...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 301)
18...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 173)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 6)
1....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 18)
71,898.. Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 288,873) (2 dark morphs so far)
2....... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 75)
2....... Ferruginous Hawk (9/18: DM juv)(9/23 DM)(YTD: 4)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 3)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 2)
1....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 61)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 2)
4....... American Kestrel (YTD: 82)
1....... Merlin (YTD: 13)
4....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 41)
5....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 21)
1....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
2....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 41)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 23)
4....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 22)
901..... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 987)

Total: 72,888 (YTD: 296,489)

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One correction from yesterday; my fingers got in the way of my eyeteeth and I couldn't see what I was typing (!) ... the Mississippi kite count from yesterday should read "9" and not "91" ... the totals are correct as shown, just a typo in the species count.

Okay, Okay, I can hear the screams already! Let's get started:  the aplomado would be a good bird at any time; no argument there from any quarter. As you may or may not know, the Peregrine Fund has been re-introducing the aplomado in a breeding program back to its former native environment in south Texas. Habitat loss and territorial encroachment by people drove the aplomado out of its extreme southern US ranges, and for decades, the northernmost populations were found only in northeastern Mexico, with one lone pair believed to be left in the extreme southern tip of Texas. Juveniles have been banded and hacked at Matagorda Island and on South Padre Island for several years now, and since the peregrine falcon came off the endangered species list this year, the aplomado breeding program has been stepped up full bore. We're now starting to see some survival of the young Texas birds, indicating the populations are apparently on the rise. Some pairs have formed and there are even reports of one or two nests (other than the original lone wild pair in the extreme southern valley of Texas). So, migration in terms of aplomado falcons may need a little more defining by the falcon experts; we tend to think of our re-introduced populations as more resident, hence this might be more of a possible transmigration. However, the Mexican populations apparently do migrate; our counter Fernando Rincon has worked on a research project involving the aplomado in Mexico.   This should be a very interesting thread to follow.

Another species that has raised a couple eyebrows has been the unusually high number of prairie falcons this fall. On September 15th, photographer Jimmy Jackson did manage to snap off a couple shots of one of the prairies. Those slides have just come in, and have been posted tonight on the Professional Birding Association web site for your examination and information:

        http://www.probirding.com/falcon

Excellent job, Jimmy; raptors are not always the most cooperative of photographic subjects when they're heading south on a mission. Thanks for letting us all see your slides. And thanks to the PBA site for hosting the images. We'll also scan the slides in on a digitizer and see if that brings out any other detail.

All right now, anyone not already at or en route to Hazel Bazemore best get to the park posthaste. Anything is possible, and the rate this season is going, is very likely to happen this weekend! Don't forget that chocolate!

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