October 6, 1999

Hi everyone, not many hawks today but we had a major, major concentration

of dragonflies this afternoon. There must have been hundreds of thousands

(millions?) spread out over the Point. Lots of rough-winged swallows at

the same time made it near impossible to scan the sky for hawks for

awhile. We're also starting to see monarchs fluttering past the tower in

small numbers. Today's count:

9 Black Vulture

13 Turkey Vulture

1 Osprey

1 Mississippi Kite

9 Northern Harrier

22 Sharp-shinned Hawk

11 Cooper's Hawk

43 Broad-winged Hawk

1 Red-tailed Hawk

13 American Kestrel

1 Merlin

1 Peregrine Falcon

4 Unidentified Accipiter

9 Unidentified raptor

138 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.