Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   10-06-99

Hi everyone,

There's no doubt about it; there was just a nip of fall in the air today, and everyone from the hawk watchers to the raptors got a little extra spring in their step today.

Here's the count for today; marrative to follow afterward:

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0....... Black Vulture (YTD: 103)
7....... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 171)
1....... Osprey (YTD: 144)
0....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 31)
0....... White-tailed Kites (YTD: 4)
0....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,512)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 3) (8/29 Ad; 9-22 imm.; 9/30 B2)
4....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 154)
33...... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 905)
22...... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 581)
1....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 29)
945..... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 636,453) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM; 10/6: 1DM)
5....... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 193)
1....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 81) (3 dark morph; 10/6: 1DM)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (YTD: 7)(9/18: DM juv, 9/23 DM)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 7)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 4)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 15)
0....... Rough-legged Hawk (YTD: 2) (9/30 & 10/1: ad lt-morph)
0....... Golden Eagle (YTD: 1)
10...... American Kestrel (YTD: 278)
0....... Merlin (YTD: 27)
1....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 159)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 31)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 2)
10...... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 158)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 28)
1....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 58)
12...... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,276)

HB Total: 1,053 (YTD: 648,424)
+ Three Satellite sites, four days each, total:  240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 889,230

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Joel says it's a good thing the weather was so nice and slightly crisp, as clouds couldn't be bought with diamonds today. Blue, blue clear sky made it tough to find birds that went as high as they could for brisk winds aloft.

Entertainment on the ground, though, was another story. Joel says an immature winter resident red-shouldered hawk got busy and caught himself a mouse for lunch today. Unfortunately, lunch was interrupted by a winter resident red-tail hawk and an adult winter resident red-shouldered hawk. They proceeded to try to convince junior to give up the prey. Junior said heck no and aerobatics and screaming commenced. Joel says at last sight, it was hard to tell what really happened, but from the screaming, we might assume junior scarfed down his mouse post haste.

Unrelated to the hawk watch today, I had a screech-to-a-halt experience on the way to work this morning that totally blew my mind. Two peregrine falcons were in a literal knock-down dragout fight on Mustang Island that lasted for well over thirty minutes from the time I happened on to it. I saw the most amazing flight displays and attacks I have ever seen between peregrines; usually the encounters we see on the migratory routes are brief and transient. These guys were dug in for the count and appeared to be intent on taking each other out, although no seriously incapacitating injuries appeared to occur, despite some seemingly real ferocity in the attacks on each other. What happened, near as we can tell, is an intruder peregrine came onto the winter territory of a Continental falcon that has been using this particular area for several years that I know of. Our winter resident falcon came in two weeks ago; she has her favorite perches and a few picking posts right by the roadside all picked out (high and large concrete utility poles, but still, pretty close to the roadside). Well, apparently an intruder peregrine, very possibly the winter resident from nearby Padre Island that likes to sit on the apex of the JFK Causeway high bridge, made a kill in the Mustang Island falcon's area, and decided one of those concrete posts would make a perfect picking post. It apparently does; it just happened to be the same post that the Mustang falcon uses for her meals. Apparently Mustang took dim view of the intruder, breakfast on the wing or no, and the battle was on. When I came cruising down the road headed for work, the two falcons were in hot pursuit, less than a hundred feet off the ground and screaming by at warp two. Needless to say, I screeched to a halt and got as far off the roadway as I could, bailed out, grabbed the binos and watched the show. And what a show! The two falcons put Top Gun fighters to shame and showed how high speed fighter action was REALLY supposed to be done. The resident falcon bore down on the intruder's tail; the intruder jinked left and right trying to shake her; the resident soared upwards at breakneck speed, getting enough altitude and speed up for a tremendous stoop; the intruder was almost overtaken before breaking the resident's angle of attack and threw the resident off; both then pulled up and reversed the play, with the intruder wheeling around on its momentum to come up on the tail of the resident as she pulled up and turned! They both pulled up after another chase, met at the apex of their flight paths, locked talons and did a dead man's spin hundreds of feet right straight to the ground; they missed terminal impact by less than a foot!! Talon-locking occurred several times while I watched, but that one ride down was breath-taking; I literally was holding my breath as they flat-spun right to the ground, wondering if they would be able to break off in time to avoid impact. The flight patterns repeated, altering with straight-out flat-out high-speed chases all over the territory to the Gulf of Mexico beach line. Absolutely amazing to watch these guys in action. Screaming at each other the entire while, too; what a sight! Several times they came screaming by at full speed right over my head; so intent on each other that observers apparently didn't bother them.

Fifteen minutes after I pulled over to watch them, they broke off their skirmish and went to perch on the poles to rest. The Mustang Island resident used a pole several hundred feet away from the intruder; the intruder went right to the pole with her breakfast bird atop and both sat for three to four minutes, literally panting with the exertion. Both screamed more choice phrases at the other; both mantled and postured, then almost as if a silent signal had been given, the resident soared off her perch, straight at the intruder, who soared off hers, and the battle was joined once again! Chase-and-run; rocket-ride-straight-up with talon locks; stoop and thump; you name it, they did it! Several times the resident got a good thump on the intruder, but nothing apparently serious enough to hurt the intruder. Just wanted to urge it to leave the territory, I guess.

Fifteen more minutes into the second round, I finally had to give up to get on to work; the falcons were still going strong at it as I pulled away. I would have killed to have had the cameras with me this morning. I don't think I'll ever forget the sight of those two going at it like they did for well over thirty minutes; it was absolutely exhilirating to watch!

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