Hello from The Hill! It's September 17, 2000 and only a few hours away from what promises to be a great liftoff!

Mississippi kite - 7
Northern harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned hawk - 6
Cooper's hawk - 7
Swainson's hawk - 6
Broadwinged hawk - 76,127
American kestrel - 2
Unid Accip - 1
Unid Raptor - 6

Total: 76,169

Other species -
great-horned owl
summer tanager
lesser nighthawk
wood stork - 4
anhingas - 1100
blue-winged teal

Butterflies -
monarch
pipevine swallowtail

Once again, the broadies saved the best for the last part of the day. Not quite as late as yesterday's; the first mega-kettle came through at five minutes to five p.m. this time. Flights came back to back, though, for the next thirty-plus minutes, four mega-flights, nearly all out of the west ... and thousands of broadies started dropping out of the sky like bricks, settling in and around Hazel Bazemore County Park for an overnighter. Tomorrow's liftoff promises to be great ... I think I'll have to take the scenic route to work early tomorrow and swing by the hawk watch ... it's only a 60 mile detour ... if I ever make it off the hill .... <grin!>!

Liftoff this morning numbered several thousand, after yesterday's bang-up kettle parked a bunch in the area overnight. Today's flights were minimal ... only in the hundreds, until the major flights hit late in the afternoon. Dottie and Ed Yturria from the Austin area came by for a visit. Fresh from seeing hundreds of hummingbirds at a nearby Hummer/Bird Fest up coast this weekend in Rockport, Dottie hit the hawk watch dead-set on seeing a real kettle. She and Ed had attended the hawk watch workshop at their Hornsby Bend watch a few weeks ago, but Dottie hadn't seen a real kettle yet. Guess who spotted the first mega-kettle today? Heck of a good way to get a kettle, Dottie! Tens of thousands of broadies makes for a very nice first kettle in anyone's book! We aim to please! Hanna Richard of Ingram, TX called in the second mega-kettle, just five minutes after the dust cleared from the first one. After that one ... two more on the heels ... we just never got back to our chairs. Hello's also to the Port Arthur group (Janna!!! Cheryl!!! You guys left too early!!!) and to Mercel Dostale and Michael Tarachow of Minneapolis (you guys got here this afternoon smack on time!!).

Mega congratulations to Elgin's Hawk Cliff Hawk Watch in Canada for breaking their broadie record on Saturday at 99,201! And to SMRR in Michigan for 50,000+ broadies on Saturday. We'll be waiting for 'em all down here with open binos .... (hey, Richard D at Merrill Creek, NJ ... thanks for the note in your hawk watch report ... we'll be watching for the arrival of Paul Varner and his cameras ... it'll be good to see him again!)

Wow, wow, wow ... it just never stops being fun!! Cooler weather today helped ...the crystal clear blue skies didn't. Couldn't have bought a cloud if we tried. We're all sky-blinded from a day of staring into the clear blue, but we'll be ready for tomorrow, never fear.

Oh, chocolate? Funny you asked ... yes, we had a few pounds on site. <grin!>
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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/