Hello from The Hill! for September 16, 2000 (Happy Diez y Seis!):

Boy, I think our heads are still spinning, even at this late hour. Jo C, Thom and Beth were on duty today. And did they get a workout (and for Thom and Beth, their first glimpse of what Hazel Bazemore is most famous for):

Osprey 6
Miss kites 19
Northern harrier 6
Sharpies 6
Cooper's 5
Red-shouldered 3
Broadwinged 33,899 (yeah, you read that right)
Swainson's 6
Red-tailed 7
Kestrel 25
Merlin 3
Peregrine 5
Unid accipiter 3
Unid buteo 4
Unid falcon 4
Unid raptor 5

Total: 34,006

Holy hawk bait, Batman! Chocolate abounded on the hill ... need I even say it? So many neat things going on ... thought the indigo snake at first hour was keen. A redtail and a harrier got it on for a few passes later in the day ... cool! A sharpie and a Coop's went at it for a few more passes ... nifty! Shoot. Who knew?!
It does pay to keep one's eyes open and listen to one's gut. Counters yesterday kept watch open until after 7:00pm Texas time as falcons insisted on coming on through at their own pace ... just before sundown. Flights of broadies were good today ... high and fast, but we caught a bunch of them in our views. Towards normal watch end at 5:00pm, we were still seeing hawks, so there was no question ... hang around the hill awhile longer. Bless our visiting friends ... Libby from San Antonio not only spotted a goodly number of hawks coming in throughout the day ... but brought copious amounts of chocolate offerings to the hawk watch ... we munched down on some candy bars, and guess what? Yeah, yeah, you've heard the patter, but all's I know is ... we eat chocolate, and the hawks come! <laugh!> So 5:30 rolls around, we've eaten some more chocolate, and all of a sudden, Libby's tensing up, we hear an "ohmigod!" out of her ... then we hear ... well, another "ohmigod!" out of her ... then we're all flying out of our seats, grabbing binos  ... and suddenly, there they were! They weren't real close; matter of fact, they winked in and out so much we didn't even get a full count on the whole flight. But what could be counted formed a huge cyclonic kettle that counters later noted stretched upward an estimated 15 degrees from the bottom of the funnel column to the top. Fifteen minutes later, when they all finally passed out of sight, clickers and counters had logged in 30,500 broadwinged hawks in that one massive mega-kettle. Everything else in the day seems somewhat anticlimactic ... and right up to that kettle, we were already celebrating a really good day anyway; much better than previous days this season and already the highest take of the season's count, with several thousand broadies on the books even before that mega-kettle hit. Wow. Storms along the migration path may well have served to back up hawks until the skies cleared sufficiently. Not that WE ever got much of that rain that's been around for weeks. But folks north and east of us did, throughout several states, and that may have been enough to concentrate the hawks for a few days. Theories abound as to liftoff tomorrow. The broadies sailed onward out of sight ... could have continued on, but thermal lift was practically gone by then anyway. There may or may not be some that hung around and doubled back, so we'll just have to see come tomorrow morning! Darn tootin' we'll be bringing more chocolate to the hill, too! See you there?

By the way ... the Celebration of Flight is still set for the end of September, so mark your calendars for September 28 to October 1st. We've got some nifty treats planned ... it's all free, and we love to see families on the hill! Check out the details on our web site: www.electrotex.com/aoc/ ... just click on Texas Hawk Watches, then scroll to the fall 2000 watch listings for Hazel Bazemore. Yes, you're right, it's the scenic route to get to the page, because I want you to hit my page counter on the way by ... <grin!> ... one of these years I'll get around to putting in a separate counter for that site. Too busy counting hawks at the moment .... and putting up the first photo gallery page for fall 2000 ... I'm catching up prior watches as I can get the photos scanned and posted.

There are a few dickie (day) birds I should go ahead and mention: scads of anhingas (more than 1200), white pelicans, even some snow geese today ... also, locally, the groove-billed anis were serenading the morning crew again on the watch site (got to get out real early to see/hear those guys ... they usually stay quiet and inactive during the heat of the day). The local red-shouldered, white-tailed and red-tailed hawks entertained us throughout the day as well. Thom noted a juvenile red-tailed hawk displayed some impressive tail-brake maneuvers while hunting along the river bottoms. Thanks by the dozens to the volunteers who showed up to help count and support the crews today (and all the other days of the watch!). Even had the Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi/Blucher Institute's radar van on site today (it'll be there tomorrow, too). The broadies are definitely starting to come through and all help is welcomed and greatly appreciated by the counting crews. Oh yeah, a south Texas "cold" front came through today as well; which means the winds shifted to ENE and that's about the extent of it so far. Weather folks say it should cool temps down a few more degrees (was drier on the hill already today, thank goodness). Can't wait until tomorrow!

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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. Plus a cast of many, many volunteers, whose help over the years is so gratefully appreciated!
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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/