(Excerpts from daily reports:)

A wonderful turnout for the Celebration of Flight! A mega-kettle of thanks to Michelle Setter, Curator, Animal Health & Rehabilitation, and raptor rehabilitator for the Texas State Aquarium. Saturday, Michelle brought Cleo (Swainson's hawk) and Scooter (barn owl) on site from the Aquarium's rehabilitation program to the great delight of attendees. These birds of prey were injured in the wild and unable to be released. They're now used for educational programs by the Aquarium. It's worth noting that right in the middle of meeting Cleo ... the first low kettle of broadwings lifting off came right over the area of the talk. Everyone rushed to the edge of the pavilion to view the passing hawks. Everyone but Cleo kept their eyes glued to the passage. Michelle noted Cleo probably wasn't impressed, as they were "only broadwings" ... if they'd been Swainson's, she might have been more attentive! Great job, Michelle, as always!

We were honored to participate in and witness a truly unique event Sunday 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 special weekend featured 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.