Hello from The Hill!

Miss Kite 23
Northern Harrier 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Broadwinged Hawk 27
Swainson's Hawk 8
Redtailed Hawk 1
Harris's Hawk 1
American Kestrel 6
Unk Accipiter 4
Unk Buteo 8
Unk Raptor 10
TOTAL 90

Even the National Weather Service says it .... September 4 and 5 were the hottest days in ever recorded in south Texas. Temps in Corpus peaked to a high of 109-F today. Laredo, Alice and Victoria peaked at 111-F. HOT is the translation. And yet another day Tuesday of blue skies and haze ... a challenge all the way around today. Jo says it was relatively quiet on the hill; she and Beth were visited by several others but mostly had the day to themselves and the birds.

Other interesting birds: an adult dark morph red tail that hunted over the watch site and finally came down in the park. Should be further sightings of this one while it's in the area. Jo C also reports a black shouldered kite and an American kestrel bounced off each other early in the am. A nice way to start the day. Pelicans were in the air today; 5 were logged in. Black chinned hummers worked the feeders with the ruby-throated. Best non-raptors of the day? Had to be the flights of anhingas. Jo C says the flights started about 3 or so in the afternoon, to the east of the site. Wave after wave of 100 or so anhingas at a time scrolled across the skies ... and Jo C notes some of the anhingas were feeling their oats (or more likely, feeling around for thermals), flying more in hawk-like fashion (mixing it up in the air), rather than the usual line-them-up and keep-them-straight formation flight they are noted for. The final tally was around 800 to 1000 anhingas; a nice movement of them throughout the watch site when raptors were hard to find. 
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Fall 2000 hawk watch crew: watch coordinator, Joel Simon (email: jsimon@electrotex.com); counters Jo Creglow, Scott Rush, Beth Hahn; and education director Thom Benedict.
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The Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch appreciates the many volunteers and supporters that have helped bring the watch into the forefront of migration studies. Thanks to Electrotex, Inc. for sponsoring our web site; Hawk Watch International for their on-going support and sponsorship of the watch efforts. Also to the Northwest Business Association, Central Power and Light, Nature's Bird Center, Margaret Cullinan Wray Charitable Trust, the Trull Foundation, and the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi.
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Hazel Bazemore County Park is in western Nueces County, Texas, west of the central Gulf Coast city of Corpus Christi. To find it, take FM624 west from SH77 for about 1 mile to the road on the right with a park sign marking it (past a Dollar Store and cancer treatment center, on the right). The park road is just on the west side of the water canal that crosses FM624. Across the street is a car wash. Turn north and take the park road; go one half mile to the park entrance gate. To reach the fall hawk watching spot, take the park entrance, make a left as soon as you get across the speed bump, and follow the winding road to the crest of the hill (past the restrooms, a covered picnic pavilion and around the next bend). Where the road makes a bend to the left, start looking for a place to park. Watch times: 8:30am-5:00pm, Texas time.
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Cheers from your roving hawk watch reporter,
Patty Beasley, Corpus Christi, TX
Email: pbeasley@electrotex.com
Web: http://www.electrotex.com/aoc/