October 10, 1999

Hello everyone, in these last four days we have seen some anti-migration

weather here at Smith Point. Rain on Friday-Saturday kept numbers low,

and for a little over an hour today we had a thick veil of fog that

rolled in from the north and reduced visibility to a couple hundred

meters. The fog broke up in late morning and we had a burst of hawk

migration! Numbers still low, but excellent diversity. The bird of the

week, by far, was a Swallow-tailed Kite that showed up at 3:45pm today.

It was high and far to the northwest at first, circling back near a

Broad-winged just under the clouds. It disappeared for awhile but we next

saw it at 4:15 flying 100ft. above the trees to our east. It seemed to be

looking for a place to roost, skimming the treetops and doubling back to

the north. Then it was last seen ascending again, perhaps to find a more

suitable resting place. I took a nice long look at that one, being a

native Pennsylvanian I don't know when I'll see one again. Today's count:

11 Turkey Vulture

1 Osprey

1 Swallow-tailed Kite

1 Mississippi Kite

10 Northern Harrier

7 Sharp-shinned Hawk

20 Cooper's Hawk

1 Red-shouldered Hawk

32 Broad-winged Hawk

2 Swainson's Hawk

2 Red-tailed Hawk

39 American Kestrel

1 Merlin

4 Peregrine Falcon

1 Unid. accipiter

2 Unid. raptor

135 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.

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