Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date:   10-24-99

Hi everyone,

What a nice way to start a watch day! Thanks to weeks and weeks of efforts by the South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey (SCCBP) in Charleston, SC, the Texas State Aquarium (TSA) and the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch were privileged to participate in the release of four Mississippi kites that were successfully rehabilitated through the South Carolina program. One adult and three hatch year kites were flown in last night from South Carolina and released this morning by Michelle Setter of the Aquarium's Animal Husbandry and Rehabilitation Division at the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch. On hand to help out were hawk watchers Joel Simon, Joyce Penny, Glenn and Jimmy Swartz, Harold Fetter and of course, Bill Beasley and I. Also on hand and in for the surprise of his young life was Jeremy Dertien of Austin, with his parents BJ & Julie. The Dertiens were birding with Jeremy, who was out freshening up his life list after a long battle and treatment for illness. Today just happened to be the day they all were at Hazel, looking for hawks, so we enlisted Jeremy's help to release one of the hatch year kites.

SCCBP Director Jim Elliott says the kites were a very special project and one of the success stories that we all love to hear about. The adult kite had been brought in with a broken radius-ulna bone from a BB gunshot. Surgery successfully repaired the wing to allow release of the kite, an all-too-rare occurrence for that sort of injury. The three hatch year kites were found orphaned in the field, nests destroyed or too damaged to return them to the parents. Elliott says the young kites were nursed to health and then raised with kite hand puppets to insure the kites didn't imprint on their human rescuers. As most of the North American kites have already migrated through, there was some concern that these kites might be released too late to migrate, but with the inclusion of an adult in the group, Elliott hopes the migration and leadership instinct will take over and the adult will lead its little band of kites southward.

The kites were released simultaneously in the Hazel Bazemore park riverbottoms, after a little orientation time in the hand to look over their new territory. All four took to wing immediately with no hesitation; splitting into two groups of two. Two of the hatch year kites made immediate tracks southward towards the hawk watch hill; the adult and other hatch year peeled off north, then circled the area, getting bearings. Time will tell if they will attempt to move on, or try to spend the season here. For once, we're very glad our insect population is bounding from better than usual rains in the spring, summer and fall. Our hawk watchers will be keeping an eye out for our guests during the remaining days of watch (through November 15th).

Pictures of Joel, Joyce, Jeremy and Jeremy's dad, BJ, releasing the kites can be found on the Texas Hawk Watches page at the following address:

        http://www.electrotex.com/aoc/hawkwatch99/MIKI_102499/release.htm

Meanwhile, the morning excitement was the best of the day; Joel reports the remainder of the day was quiet and slow, with blue, blue skies making it hard to spot raptors. Here are Joel's field notes for the rest of the day:

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It finally slowed down to under a hundred raptors but we enjoyed the cool day, our resident birds, and several nice guests. Two different 12 year olds, each with a passion to see and get to know birds, spent much of the day on the hill. To show someone their first Green Jay, or Broad-winged Hawk, or any bird for that matter is always nice, but if it is an enthusiastic 12 year old it makes me feel darn good.

- Joel

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2....... Black Vulture (YTD: 542)
68...... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 26,557)
1....... Osprey (YTD: 168)
0....... Swallow-tailed Kites (YTD: 31)
0....... White-tailed Kites (YTD: 5)
0....... Mississippi Kite (YTD: 5,512)
0....... Bald Eagle (YTD: 3) (8/29 Ad; 9-22 imm.; 9/30 B2)
0....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 270)
3....... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 1,283)
4....... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 1,030)
0....... Northern Goshawk (YTD: 1) (1 on 10/10)
0....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 61)
5....... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 640,224) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM)
0,...... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 1,214) (2 DM on 10/11)
8....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 166) (3 dark morph)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (YTD: 9)(9/18: DM juv, 9/23 DM)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 11)
0....... Short-tailed Hawk (YTD: 1) (10/20 light)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 6)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 18)
0....... Rough-legged Hawk (YTD: 2) (9/30 & 10/1: ad lt-morph)
0....... Golden Eagle (YTD: 3) (1 Juv 10/5; 1 on 10/17; 1 on 10/20)
1....... American Kestrel (YTD: 452)
0....... Merlin (YTD: 57)
0....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 241)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 31)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 11)
1....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 295)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 41)
0....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 91)
2....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,846)

HB Total: 95 (YTD: 682,189)
+ Three Satellite sites, four days each, total:  240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 922,995

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