Greetings from the hill!

Okay, let's catch up at Hazel, for those who haven't seen numbers yet. My head's still spinning over the swallow-tailed kites to date. And yep, I've managed to miss every darn one of them so far. Ahhh, but the season's still young! We don't usually see 'em like this, and so quickly (geez, we're only a week into the watch!). Smith Point must be sending some our way. (Thanks, guys! <grin!>) The quick-n-dirties through August 21

Season totals to Aug 21
1 ....Osprey
22 ...Swallow-tailed kite (yeah, you read that right 3 on 8/16; 3 on 8/19; 16 on 8/20)
4,452 Mississippi kite
5 ....Northern harrier
1 ....Red-shouldered hawk
1 ....Broad-winged hawk
26 ...Swainson's hawk
1 ....Red-tailed hawk
1 ....White-tailed hawk
2 ....Harris's hawk
2 ....Peregrine falcon
1 ....Crested caracara
2 ....Unknown buteos
5 ....Unknown raptors
------------------------
4,522 Total season to Aug 21

Joel Simon heads up the 2001 Fall Hazel Bazemore watch once again. And we all extend a hearty welcome to this fall's on-site HWI counters, Greg and Devon (who celebrated his birthday August 20th with the incredible sight of 16 swallow-tailed kites winging overhead in one day. Do we know how to show these guys a good time, or what?!).

Break out that chocolate!

August 22-23, 2001:

Greetings from the hill! Kinda slow, and kinda hot.

Counts for 8/22 62 Miss. kites, 1 Harris's hawk, 2 Swainson's, 1 Northern harrier (total 66).

Counts for 8/23 47 Miss. kites, 1 osprey, 1 Swainson's, 1 White-tailed hawk, 1 peregrine falcon (total 51).

Season totals to date
2 ....Osprey
22 ...Swallow-tailed kite (yeah, you read that right 3 on 8/16; 3 on 8/19; 16 on 8/20)
4,561 Mississippi kite
6 ....Northern harrier
1 ....Red-shouldered hawk
1 ....Broad-winged hawk
29 ...Swainson's hawk
1 ....Red-tailed hawk
2 ....White-tailed hawk
3 ....Harris's hawk
3 ....Peregrine falcon
1 ....Crested caracara
2 ....Unknown buteos
5 ....Unknown raptors
------------------------
4,639 season total to 8/23

August 24-27, 2001: 

Counts for 8/24 3 Swallow-tailed kites, 1,582 Miss. kites, 1 Swainson's, 1 Red-tailed, 1 Unidentified falcon, 1 Unknown raptor (total 1,589).

Counts for 8/25 1,251 Miss. kites, 1 Red-shouldered, 9 Swainson's, 2 Red-tailed, 1 Merlin, 1 Unknown raptor (total 1265).

Counts for 8/26 1 Miss. kite, 1 Northern harrier, 3 Swainson's, 1 Harris's (total 6)

Counts for 8/27 4 Swainson's, 1 Unknown buteo (total 5)

Season Totals To Date
2 ....Osprey
25 ...Swallow-tailed kite (3 on 8/16; 3 on 8/19; 16 on 8/20; 3 on 8/24)
7,395 Mississippi kite
7 ....Northern harrier
2 ....Red-shouldered hawk
1 ....Broad-winged hawk
46 ...Swainson's hawk
4 ....Red-tailed hawk
2 ....White-tailed hawk
4 ....Harris's hawk
1 ....Merlin
3 ....Peregrine falcon
1 ....Crested caracara
3 ....Unknown buteos
1 ....Unknown falcon
7 ....Unknown raptors
------------------------
7,504 Season Totals To 8/27

August 28-31, 2001:

Greetings from the hill!

Nineteen hours and five and a half inches of rain later, the score is hawks 1, counters zero. Yep, been raining here, all right, for the last four days solid, and no hurricane to blame it on (happily). Just a tropical wave determined to relieve us of drought conditions in as little time as possible. Just to keep the numbers updated, you'll note the totals below haven't changed, just the bottom line date. Joel says the sun came out for a few minutes tonight while we were on the phone exchanging the latest day of "zero" totals. Tomorrow promises more rain, then maybe a break on Sunday. When that break comes, six days' worth of backed-up and fidgety hawks are gonna blast across the hill. Should be a sight (we certainly hope so; our poor counters might be starting to think we've lied to them about the numbers here! <grin!>).