Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date: 11-01-99
Hi everyone! Here's Joel's report from the hill:
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A really fun day with decent numbers and thirteen species plus two mystery birds (one solved and one not). A lift-off of 500 vultures and 21 Broad-winged Hawks got the day off to a good start. Just after 11 am while counting a small kettle of Black Vultures far out to the west one bird looked a little different. It was all black but the wings seemed a little longer and more pointed and during one turn it showed a white band near mid-tail. At this distance, more than 1.5 miles, the wings appeared to be held flat. Still, not enough for any type of identification.
The second poser of the day was much closer and gave us a long look. It was for all the world a Harlan's.... but the tail just wasn't right. We ran for the book, but for the first time this season I had left it at home. After a mad dash to get Wheeler and Clark's Photo Guide and a quick review with Fernando it turned out to indeed be a Harlan's, with a gray tail. The gray tail is one of three listed in the book but this was the first one of this variation I have seen. How about the rest of you hawk watchers? And if so, what percentage have had the gray tail? (Note from Patty: I distinctly remember one Harlan's that I spotted had a gray tail; I saw it on Mustang Island in winter 1997, migrating through. I, too, ran for my Wheeler's! luckily, it wasn't too interested in zipping through, and I was able to observe it rather closely (100' or so) for 10 minutes or so in flight overhead as it lazily worked slow thermals.)
Another good bird was a light-morph Ferruginous Hawk that we followed for a while, at the end the back lighting produced a wonderfully translucent bird.
254 Black Vulture
522 Turkey Vulture
11 Northern Harrier (5 were males)
11 Sharp-shinned Hawk
10 Cooper's Hawk
2 Red-shouldered Hawk
22 Broad-winged Hawk
1 Swainson's Hawk
6 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Ferruginous Hawk
2 Harris' Hawk
2 American Kestrel
1 Crested Caracara
4 UA
1 UB
3 UR
Total 853
- Joel
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226..... Black Vulture (YTD: 1,019)
785..... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 28,870)
2....... Osprey (YTD: 177)
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)
8....... Northern Harrier (YTD: 300)
9....... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 1,309)
4....... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 1,053)
0....... Northern Goshawk (YTD: 1) (1 on 10/10)
4....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 73)
2....... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 640,234) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM)
2,...... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 1,224) (2 DM on 10/11)
9....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 225) (3 dark morph)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (YTD: 9)(9/18: DM juv, 9/23 DM)
1....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 13)
1....... Short-tailed Hawk (YTD: 2) (10/20 light; 10/31 light)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 6)
0....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 20)
0....... Rough-legged Hawk (YTD: 3) (9/30 & 10/1: ad lt-morph; 10-26 fem adult)
0....... Golden Eagle (YTD: 4) (1 Juv 10/5; 1 on 10/17; 1 on 10/20)
1....... American Kestrel (YTD: 456)
0....... Merlin (YTD: 57)
0....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 241)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 32)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 12)
1....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 300)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 44)
0....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 91)
0....... Unidentified Eagle (YTD: 1)
6....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,869)
HB Total: 1,061 (YTD: 685,200)
+ Three Satellite sites, four days each, total: 240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 926,006
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- Cheers from Patty Beasley, Joel Simon, Fernando Ramos Rincon, Ryan Wagner, and the rest of the HBHW cast and crew!