Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   10-04-99

Hi everyone,

Dare I get quaint today? I dare, I dare! You don't like Texas weather? Just hang around another five minutes, it'll change! So okay, maybe that's more along the lines of corny instead of quaint. Gives you a good idea of how much there is to write about today, eh? The anticipated cold front didn't blow in like the gale the meteorologists on tv were promising. It should blow in tonight and tomorrow; we'll see what gets pushed in. Even nexrad didn't show much action in the skies overhead in south Texas (although Fort Polk had some interesting looking lines mid-day). Another slow day on the hill today in terms of numbers. But Joel says the species spread was still pretty good. Falcons and accipiters still continue to come in higher than usual numbers.

There was one bird that didn't make it to an individual species list, but went down instead as an unknown accipiter. Joel says from the shape and flight characteristics, it may have been a northern goshawk. Joel says there just wasn't enough light to get any good detail and they weren't going to call it on shape and flight gizz alone, although the shape seemed pretty definitive. The accip was in a flight with some broadwing hawks.

For swallow-tailed kite counters, the kite came through at 1:35pm central time. Joel said that was a fun bird; came in with a mixed group of a Mississippi kite, a Cooper's hawk, a peregrine falcon, some vultures, an unidentified accipiter and an American kestrel.

The ferruginous was an immature light morph.

A hawk watch welcome to birding guide Victor Emmanuel, who dropped by the hill today and logged in another first fall bird for our day bird list; the first savannah sparrow reported at the park. Other new day birds also included the first Franklin's gull and not a new bird, but new in the numbers: a huge kettle of 700-800 wood storks. Joel said the stork kettle was just a wonderful sight; took one's breath away. They rolled through late in the afternoon.

Here's the count for today:

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0....... Black Vulture (YTD: 103)
0....... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 164)
9....... Osprey (YTD: 141)
1....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 31)
0....... White-tailed Kites (YTD: 4)
3....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,511)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 3) (8/29 Ad; 9-22 imm.; 9/30 B2)
5....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 139)
90...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 835)
60...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 512)
4....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 28)
1914.... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 625,388) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM)
10...... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 185)
1....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 78) (3 dark morph)
1....... Ferruginous Hawk (YTD: 6)(9/18: DM juv, 9/23 DM)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 7)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 4)
3....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 15)
0....... Rough-legged Hawk (YTD: 2) (9/30 & 10/1: ad lt-morph)
44...... American Kestrel (YTD: 247)
4....... Merlin (YTD: 26)
16...... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 150)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 31)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 2)
9....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 137)
1....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 25)
7....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 52)
8....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,251)

HB Total: 2,190 (YTD: 637,084)
+ Three Satellite sites, four days each, total:  240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 877,890

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