Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   10-02-99

Hi everyone,

Without a doubt, a very large number of broadwing hawks passed into south Texas today. The majority of those broadwings, however, apparently passed too far west of Hazel Bazemore to be recorded at the watch site. From radar monitoring to ground observer verification throughout the day, we know tens of thousands of broadies migrated through at least as far west as Alice (approximately 35 miles west of the watch site, as the hawk flies). Reports came in from Jimmy Jackson who was told by Alice area residents there were "thousands of hawks; too many hawks to count" passing overhead in mid-morning. Around that same time, Michael Marsden brought his birding tour group to within a few miles of satellite site #4 (from the past week's picket line experiment; about 14 miles west of Hazel Bazemore), and counted 10,000+ broadies lifting off from that area.

At the Hazel Bazemore main watch site, the morning liftoff amounted to only a few hundred broadies. By early afternoon, radar showed promising indications of broadwings near Victoria, about 90 miles north and east up the coast from the watch site. Winds were mostly easterly today; the effects of the cold front of a few days ago already dissipated and that likely also helped to push broadies more westerly. The anticipated arrival of the Victoria skein of broadies saw the day's largest kettle/stream of only a little over 1,500 pass to the east of the watch site a couple hours later. The majority of that stream likely also went west or could even have stayed somewhat northerly still. Radar images captured throughout the day by Bill Beasley seem to indicate even the Victoria hawks did move in a more westerly direction, although by late afternoon, there were still potentially raptors north and east of the watch site. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Still and all, it was a wierd day! Falcons and accipiters ruled the count; surely we must have broken all known one-day count records for the Hazel Bazemore site for sharp-shinned hawks, Northern harriers and peregrine falcons. There's always something to see. One peregrine falcon sharing a thermal with a sharp-shinned and several vultures entertained us immensely by making a few stoops at a passing wood stork that was trying to enter the thermal .... talk about optimistic thinking! The wood stork was smart enough to hustle out of the peregrine's way as quickly as it could. Another falcon took exception to a vulture and gave it a glancing thump on its head as they passed by. No harm done; just annoyed the vulture. Kestrels were coming in little kettles of four and five at a time; sharpies were another constant fixture almost all afternoon. Several thousands each of American white pelicans and anhingas and a few dozen wood storks came through in between flights of raptors. There was almost constant traffic in small numbers for the most part, between accipiters, falcons and broadies. Some of the broadie kettles came in nice and low, affording excellent views.

Back on the hill tomorrow! We're still waiting for the rest of the broadies as they wend their way southward from the eastern flyway. Here's the count for today:

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0....... Black Vulture (YTD: 103)
0....... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 163)
8....... Osprey (YTD: 121)
0....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 30)
0....... White-tailed Kites (YTD: 4)
7....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,508)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 3) (8/29 Ad; 9-22 imm.; 9/30 B2)
24...... Northern Harrier (YTD: 123)
92...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 693)
27...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 417)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 6)
1....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 20)
6141.... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 622,832) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM)
10...... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 142)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (9/18: DM juv)(9/23 DM)(YTD: 5)
3....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 76) (3 dark morph)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 7)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 3)
0....... Rough-legged Hawk (YTD: 2) (9/30 & 10/1: ad lt-morph)
63...... American Kestrel (YTD: 178)
2....... Merlin (YTD: 21)
17...... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 116)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 31)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 2)
9....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 102)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 24)
3....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 44)
4....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,230)

HB Total: 6,411 (YTD: 634,016)
+ Three Satellite sites totals:  240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 874,822

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