Hello from The Hill! It's Thursday, October 12, 2000. I'll keep the commentary short; there are a lot of anxious folks looking for around 100,000 broadies to come through our site. Well, the numbers were good today; they just weren't broadies .... but we think tomorrow is the day whatever's backed up will bust on through south Texas. Hopefully, some will even go over Hazel!

Black vulture 5
Turkey vulture 11101 (wow!)
Osprey 9
White-tailed kite 1
Northern harrier 13
Sharp-shinned hawk 113
Cooper's hawk 46
Red-shouldered hawk 4
Broadwinged hawk 553
Swainson's hawk 1584
Red-tailed hawk 8
American kestrel 33
Merlin 2
Unid accip 35
Unid buteo 91
Unid falcon 7
Unid raptor 118
TOTALS 13723

Jo Creglow files tonight's report, and it's so cute, I'm gonna quote it!

"WHEEEEEE!!! These critters were all over the sky, in almost all directions and as usual, they are so s__l__o__w. There were also 805 or so Pelicans, white, and 10 Monarchs. Several times while counting the TV's we encountered gulls of all things. We could't find anything to id them as a particular gull. They also were not going south, just in the air space. It was a busy day."

Good warm up. Area watchers are spying hundreds to thousands of Swainson's sitting in fields around here, waiting for the secret password signal to go. The Pennsylvania Express hasn't pulled into the Hazel Bazemore station yet. It ain't over 'til it's over. Thanks to Libby, CC, Jane, Jimmy, and everyone else checking in with area sightings. Got an email from Raul in Veracruz tonight, too (thanks again, Raul!). He notes 80,000 broadwinged hawks passed through their watch yesterday. Wowza. Wonder if those were some of ours from the 29th? What with the recent weather in south Texas and the hurricane in Mexico ... you think it might be about the right time frame? <laugh!> Who knows!? It's fun to plot them out ... for sure.

Good thing I'm keeping the commentary short tonight, right? <grin!> On that note, polish your lenses and keep your eyes upward along the route ... the weather is finally clearing and warming nicely again around here ... tomorrow could be good somewhere in south Texas.

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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 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.
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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/