Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch, Fall 1999
Date: 11-02-99
Hi everyone! Here's Joel's report from the hill:
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Windy all day, so much so that we parked my van crossways to the wind to keep from blowing away. The good news was that the raptors were low, the bad news was they were speeding blurs.
6 Black Vulture
90 Turkey Vulture
2 Osprey
8 Northern Harrier
7 Sharp-shinned Hawk
7 Cooper's Hawk
3 Red-shouldered Hawk
1 Swainson's Hawk
6 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Harris' Hawk
1 American Kestrel
2 UR
total 134
- Joel
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Update: in light of Joel's query on Harlan's redtails with gray tails, I received this post from Mark Orsag (of the Hitchcock Nature Area, which is in the Loess Hills on the Iowa side of the Iowa-Nebraska border overlooking the Missouri River Valley to the west). Mark has generously allowed me to forward it to you all. Thanks, Mark! Your input is greatly appreciated (and may I say we're quite impressed at the numbers of Harlan's your site gets! That blue-tailed redtail must've been quite a sight!).
- Patty
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Patty,
I'm in a unique position to help you out on this one as we get good numbers of Harlan's Hawks here at Hitchcock. We see a number of the "dusky-tailed variants" here. They seem to come through a bit earlier in the season than the more conventional white-tailed adults for whatever reason. Maybe they are going farther south? Your bird may have been recorded here earlier, but we will never know for sure.
Harlan's tails, by the way, have almost infinite variation. The Nebraska Raptor Center hosted a very handsome individual last year that had a partially turquoise tail. We recently saw a bird at HNA with a dull yellow tail with the trademark narrow black band at the tip.
Pete Dunne, in Hawks in Flight, is also correct about the perils of distinguishing immature Harlan's RTs from Western Dark Morph RT immatures. We call only about half of them and record the rest as "dark morph indeterminates".
P.S. We've recorded 19 Harlan's so far this year.
- Mark Orsag
Email: MOrsag@doane.edu
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Year-To-Dates (sorry; forgot to update these in the 11/01 report):
6....... Black Vulture (YTD: 1,279)
90...... Turkey Vulture (YTD: 29,482)
2....... Osprey (YTD: 179)
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: 319)
7....... Sharp-shinned Hawk (YTD: 1,327)
7....... Cooper's Hawk (YTD: 1,070)
0....... Northern Goshawk (YTD: 1) (1 on 10/10)
3....... Red-shouldered Hawk (YTD: 75)
0....... Broad-winged Hawk (YTD: 640,256) (9/21: 2DM; 9/24: 1DM; 9/30: 3DM)
1....... Swainson's Hawk (YTD: 1,226) (2 DM on 10/11)
6....... Red-tailed Hawk (YTD: 237) (3 dark morph; Harlan's 11/1)
0....... Ferruginous Hawk (YTD: 10)(9/18: DM juv, 9/23 DM, 11/1 LM)
0....... White-tailed Hawk (YTD: 13)
0....... Short-tailed Hawk (YTD: 2) (10/20 light; 10/31 light)
0....... Zone-tailed Hawk (YTD: 6)
1....... Harris's Hawk (YTD: 23)
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: 459)
0....... Merlin (YTD: 57)
0....... Peregrine Falcon (YTD: 241)
0....... Prairie Falcon (YTD: 32)
0....... Aplomado Falcon (YTD: 1)
0....... Crested Caracara (YTD: 12)
0....... Unidentified Accipiter (YTD: 304)
0....... Unidentified Buteo (YTD: 45)
0....... Unidentified Falcon (YTD: 91)
0....... Unidentified Eagle (YTD: 1)
2....... Unidentified Raptor (YTD: 3,874)
HB Total: 134 (YTD: 686,053)
+ Three Satellite sites, four days each, total: 240,806 (incl. 1 BE and 11 BW-DM)
= Coastal Bend Hawk Watch grand total: 926,993
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- Cheers from Patty Beasley, Joel Simon, Fernando Ramos Rincon, Ryan Wagner, and the rest of the HBHW cast and crew!