October 4, 1999

Hello everyone, another early start for the sharpies. We had seen a lot

of birds coming down early yesterday, so the lift-off today was not

unexpected. Bob Galloway and Jane Derrick arrived at the tower at 7am and

by the time I arrived 15 minutes later they had already counted 70

Sharp-shinneds! We had 165 up to 8am but after that initial surge the

rate quickly dropped, and then only a few sharpies were seen each hour

after 10am. The sky was hazy but otherwise clear until a large cloud mass

moved in from the Gulf just before 11am. A northeast wind kicked up at

this time and some of the hawks took advantage of this airstream, riding

high just under the clouds. We had small kettles of broad-wingeds up

there, hard to see, and a few groups of vultures moving through. Kestrels

were steady as usual. Season totals are included with today's count:

Oct. 4 ........[season]

15 Black Vulture.... [51]

24 Turkey Vulture....[31]

1 Osprey.........[30]

0 Swallow-tailed Kite...[51]

1 White-tailed Kite.....[9]

18 Mississippi Kite...[2964]

0 Bald Eagle.......[2]

10 Northern Harrier...[194]

251 Sharp-shinned Hawk...[2769]

32 Cooper's Hawk.........[564]

1 Red-shouldered Hawk...[23]

308 Broad-winged Hawk...[29,120]

0 Swainson's Hawk....[24]

1 Red-tailed Hawk.....[28]

0 Ferruginous Hawk....[2]

0 White-tailed Hawk......[1]

57 American Kestrel.....[898]

0 Merlin.......[27]

0 Peregrine Falcon...[59]

7 Unidentified Accipiter...[53]

0 Unidentified Buteo....[17]

0 Unidentified Falcon...[7]

3 Unidentified raptor...[58]

729 Total Hawks.......[36,984]

Until tomorrow,

Kyle McCarty

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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.

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