Hello from The Hill! It's Sunday, October 1, 2000. (Where does the
time
go?!) Beth Hahn sends today's report:
Turkey vulture 2
Northern harrier 1
Sharpshinned hawk 27
Cooper's hawk 15
Broadwinged hawk 13574
Swainson's hawk 12
Redtailed hawk 1
American kestrel 5
Peregrine falcon 3
Unid accipiter 25
Unid buteo 1
Unid falcon 8
Unid raptor 22
TOTAL 13696
A ferruginous hawk was also sighted by experienced observers, but not
recorded by the counters.
Other species noted: green-winged teal; butterflies: pipevine
swallowtail,
painted lady, southern dogfish.
We were honored to participate in and witness a truly unique event
this
morning. Members from the Corpus Christi Native American Association
came
on site and performed a ceremonial blessing of the hawk watch.
Certain
raptors are sacred to Native Americans, one of which is the redtailed
hawk.
Upon arriving to the hawk watch site, a potential site had been
identified
(near the pavilion where the presentations were taking place). However,
we
wanted the site to be just right, so I told them to look over the area,
and
let us know where they felt would be most appropriate. The elders
looked
the area over, ended up traveling around the park, and found a
day-camp
site down the hill from the watch. Upon discovering old oaks,
plentiful
other trees and a peaceful redtail hawk sitting in the nearby trees,
they
proclaimed THAT site as appropriate! The ceremonial drum was set up for
its
first use since its construction by CCNAA members; another honor for us,
as
the drum was also later blessed in ceremony and song. Hawks are such
an
integral part of both of our memberships that we all wondered what took
us
so long to make the connection. I guess the spirits were talking, and
we
were all just finally listening. The event cemented friendship and
fellowship between our respective members, and we are honored and
excited
by the planned future blessings by Native Americans for our hawk watch
from
now on. Read what you will into omens and portents. While we do have
our
fun in the passing out of chocolate, and teasing about what great
"hawk
bait" it makes ... I can tell you this: chocolate doesn't have the
corner
on that market any more. When that drum was first struck this morning
in
ceremony, we heard the first deep, throaty reverberation. The second
deep
reverberating beat followed shortly. The third sound we heard was the
shout
of "KETTLE!" from the hill. Throughout the day, every time that drum
was
struck and song was raised, hawks appeared! Draw your own
conclusions.
Another aside ... the ceremony was a bit late in starting up. Joking
about
proceeding on "Indian time" ("when it gets done, it gets done; when we
get
there, we get there") ... while waiting for drummers and dancers to
arrive,
we discovered some of the drummers were further held up by the sight of
the
morning's first kettle of hawks while en route to the blessing area.
That's
a pretty good excuse in our book!
The third Celebration of Flight was a satisfying success. The four day
free
event featured presentations on Hawk Watch International by Director
Howard
Gross, as well as talks on raptor ID and satellite telemetry studies by
HWI
Field Studies Coordinator Mark Vekasy. Thom Benedict, HWI's Education
Director for the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch also gave talks on raptor
migration over the four-day period. Mobile radar operations by Texas
A&M
University - Corpus Christi's Conrad Blucher Institute (under the
direction
of Dr. Robert Benson) offered a different perspective during the watch.
The
live raptor presentation by the Texas State Aquarium (mentioned
yesterday)
and the blessing and ceremonial dance and song today by the CC Native
American Association were the special weekend feature events. Hundreds
of
visitors made it to the hill to bring home their own special
memories.
Additional honored guests were six members of the Board of Trustees of
Hawk
Watch International; we were thrilled to see you on site and appreciate
you
all going out of your way to make time to spend with us on the hill.
While
we didn't have huge numbers during the usual peak passage period
(some
years we do; some years we don't ... you know how it goes) ... we did
manage to get some good quality time in on some decent kettles of
thousands
of birds each. And it was a real pleasure to get to know everyone.
Thanks
to all our visitors who attended the events ... we made some deep
friendships and renewed old acquaintances. Sincerest thanks for the
support, sponsorship and volunteerism spirit that makes the watch such
a
success each season. That goes doubly for all those volunteers who come
to
the hill day after day to help the counters during the regular watch
duty
shifts. There have been some grueling days on the hill that were made
much
easier by the support of the volunteers and visitors.
For those wondering about the Westlake remote site ... traffic slowed
considerably as the current broadwing push slowed. The 138,000+ day
on
Thursday at Westlake brought a Friday morning liftoff of 41,900.
Saturday
brought only several thousand. Liftoff this morning was only about
1,200
... Bill and I manned the site tonight for set down but only logged in
102
raptors. We'll post the compiled data shortly for the full seven days
at
the Westlake remote site.
We're all monitoring the skies heavily for the anticipated arrival of
the
last big wave of broadies that passed through the northern sites ...
Kirk
Moulton of the Pennsylvania SEPT has been tracking and analyzing the
passages of all the sites he can access data from, and is
prognosticating
October 4-5 as the final wave passage period. (I think the grammar in
that
last sentence suffered a bit, but bear with me yet again ... I think
I'm
down to three brain cells tonight, and am going to quit for the night
and
go find some more cold packs for my eyes!) ...
By the way, I've posted some of the initial hawk watch event and site
images to the Texas Hawk Watches site on the Hazel Bazemore Fall 2000
page.
Two image pages are up and more will follow in the next few days. Watch
for
that 109-degree shot. What fun!! (if you have any of your own photos
you
would like to see posted; send them to me off-group and I'll happily
add
them to the on-line album! Photos from prior watches are in the process
of
being gathered and scanned -- same request applies -- and will be up
after
these are posted)
Don't forget; hawk watch continues through November 15th, so don't be
a
stranger!
-----------------------------------
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!
-----------------------------------
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 and South
West
Services, Inc./Central Power and Light; Nature's Bird Center;
Margaret
Cullinan Wray Charitable Trust; the Trull Foundation; the Audubon
Outdoor
Club of Corpus Christi; Haynes Realty; H.E.B. Food Stores; Charter
Bank;
and Tejas Veterinary Clinic.
-----------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------
Cheers from your roving hawk watch reporter,
Patty Beasley, Corpus Christi, TX
Email: pbeasley@electrotex.com