October 3, 1999

Hi folks,

We had a pleasant day on the tower. The sharpies were up early, and I

counted 66 from 7:30 to 8:00. It was a good day overall for viewing as we

had low birds everywhere in the sky, but it was very difficult to count

as there did not appear to be a predominant line of flight. The biggest

group of Broad-wingeds was about 300 which occurred before noon. Starting

after 2pm the sky began to clear of hawks, and we saw some coming down

into the oak mottes nearby as of 2:30pm. This seemed quite early, but not

surprisingly the kestrels kept going strong through 4pm and we had a few

late harriers too. I've included yesterday's count below:

Oct. 3 [Oct. 2]

9 [0] Black Vulture

2 [0] Turkey Vulture

1 [0] Osprey

0 [1] Bald Eagle

0 [1] White-tailed Kite

12 [7] Mississippi Kite

22 [15] Northern Harrier

201 [284] Sharp-shinned Hawk

34 [86] Cooper's Hawk

0 [1] Red-shouldered Hawk

902 [136] Broad-winged Hawk

4 [1] Red-tailed Hawk

125 [105] American Kestrel

0 [1] Peregrine Falcon

1313 [637] Total Hawks

Until tomorrow,

Kyle McCarty

Official counter

Smith Point Hawk Watch is made possible by donations from Exxon,

Hawkwatch International, Houston O.G., Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, and

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Computer donated by Texas Partners in Flight and Compaq. Thank you all.