Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch

Corpus Christi, Texas (Nueces County)

All reports are posted daily to the following newsgroups: 
BirdHawk, TexBirds, BirdChat, TexasBirdChat
   

So, just how do we count all those hawks!?
 

Joel's report from the hill:

The coolest day so far this season with numerous thunderstorms around most of the day. Many of the kites today were hunting insects as they came through. They are so graceful as they swoop and dive and are rewarded with a snack on the wing as they continue their way south.

Mississippi Kite.......286
Broad-winged Hawk...2
Swainson's Hawk......1
Total- 289

Thanks, Joel. Good to see the area rains from TS Grace didn't keep the kites still. Kites have been feeding well on the wing; many this weekend were also taking advantage of the bug bounties. We love to watch their aerobatics in pursuit of a morsel.

September 02, 2003:

Joel's report from the hill:

Slow beginning of the day, most of the hawks came in the hour before it began raining. Closed the watch nearly two hours early.

Mississippi Kites...........12
Broad-winged Hawk........3
Swainsonn's Hawk..........6
Total- 21

Thanks, Joel. Weather was hit and miss all over the area today. Weather folks say we'll have another day or two of that pattern before it levels back out. Of course, by then, that tropical wave currently in the Caribbean will probably be ready to make itself known. (Cynical? Moi?) Had to laugh; I heard three other people talking about the continuous spate of tropical weather coming over, around and near us this season. Each one of them in separate conversations used the same phrase I've been muttering under my breath: "Enough!" I do have to admit it is a bit cooler for a change (no less humid, but definitely not quite as stiflingly hot). Let's hope the weather bands continue to funnel in raptors! 

September 03, 2003:

Boy, these are the kinds of days we live for! Hey, you guys at the Coastal Bend Audubon Society ... remember last night after our talk how we handed out chocolate and assured you that the more you ate, the more hawks the counters would see the next day? Would we lie to you? <grin!> Guess what! Ohhhh, yeah! They saw some hawks, all right. And typically for this particular watch, what started out to be a long, tiring day with little to show for it ended up with a deluge that got everyone's blood racing! Joel and Vicki gave the boys the day off today so they could run some errands and enjoy a little weekday down time. For the first six hours, Joel says only 6 birds made their way over the watch site. It was shaping up to be one of those not-quite-rain days, as storms wound around the entire coastal bend. Joel says they followed a cell south of the site, then one popped up west, then another came in from the east, and finally the northern boundary got its cell. Nothing fell on the park, but the storms (remnants from Grace) continue to make themselves known. At 2:30 watch time (Mountain time is used for the watch data even though we're actually in the Central time zone), Joel said he got up and started to do the weather data. He scanned around quickly before starting to take the readings ... yep, there was another cell coming in from the north and another building in the northeast. Joel and Vicki were resigning themselves to the fact it was going to be a looooooong watch day. Vicki continued to scan the skies as Joel sat down to paperwork, when suddenly, she shouted "HAWKS!" Joel spun around, and quickly zeroed in on the oncoming horde. Hawks! And those buddies weren't waiting to see if the storms were going to abate. They came through at Warp 6 and kept on going, but thanks to the inclement weather, Joel reports they were running so low, they were ID'able by naked eye (yes, even older ... er ... more experienced naked eyes like ours!). By the time the stream pounded through, Joel and Vicki racked up 1,755 Mississippi kites on their clickers, including one massive kettle of 1,060!! Radar throughout the day showed a narrow line of open air right over Hazel, cutting through the midst of the swatch of storms kicked up by moist air moving onshore meeting drier air from that stalled front of a few days ago edging the northern and eastern skies. 

Whew!! Okay, that made the day's drudgery worthwhile! Gee, too bad the boys couldn't have been on hand. Neither one has yet to see a really large group of hawks. We keep assuring them they'll get their fill in another few weeks. They're not sure whether to be thrilled or terrified, I think. <grin!> 

Right about 3pm watch time, Joel sat down at the paperwork station again to tally up the numbers for that hour. No sooner had he settled in with the paperwork again, when another shout went up from Vicki. "HAWKS!" Joel jumped up and zeroed in on her view ... ohhhh, boy. This was no group of "merely" 1,700 (and don't kid yourselves, 1,700 kites is a VERY nice group!). As the raptors drew closer, it turned out this wasn't even a group of kites. Holy smokes, folks, this was a group of broadies, and what a group it was! Apparently a pretty significant flight of broadies had been backed up, spun around and sent on an obstacle course across the upper Texas coast through the storms and backwash of TS Grace for several days. By the time they found what we later labeled last night as the "Honey Hole Over Hazel" at 3pm, a super kettle of (are you ready for it?) .... 6,300 broadwinged hawks warped their way through the watch! Joel said these guys weren't waiting around for anyone to give them directions through the storms, either. Those broadies had found themselves a hole through the storms and they hit that sucker at full speed, just like the kites! Joel said the flight took about just a few minutes to go through, just like the kites. In the space of 35 minutes, more than eight thousand hawks had come and gone overhead. Double whew!! YES! 

We're even more excited about this particular large flight of broadies, because it not only is the largest kettle of broadies at this early of a date for the watch in HWI history, it may one of the largest and earliest for the entire watch history. Joel checked his records last night and says the earliest prior large kettle he shows came in on September 12th. This batch was very early. A harbinger of things to come? One can hope! Oh, Joel says this might be the earliest five-thousand-plus day, too. 

Anyone who has history with Hazel, I need to talk to you. We have written records going back only so far, but I know there are some of you "old timers" from the '70's still around that can shed some wonderful light on the back history of Hazel, back when you guys were running picket lines and still trying to figure out where the "perfect" spot was to view hawks in this watch area. I'm collecting that history for documentation, and really want to talk to you. 

More watch notes before I close out this novel. Joel also noted the dicky birds (birds other than raptors) were wonderful today, too. Another first (we think) was a Bell's vireo at the watch site. Close enough and patient enough to sit for a nice view through the scope. That's a good bird anywhere around here, and we think it may also be a first sighting for the park. Joel's checking records on that, too. One other very interesting note ... you know how many swallows we'll get at watch. We didn't call last weekend's watch the swallow watch for nothing. We'll routinely get hundreds to thousands overhead some days. Well, yesterday, I think the watch even broke that record for a timed flight. Joel said when those Mississippi kites transported through the watch, they were immediately followed and overtaken by what at conservative count ended up being around 10,000 swallows! Apparently they were staging somewhere else as well, and moving like greased ... swallows ... to get ahead of the storms and make their way as far south as possible, as fast as possible. I've seen some impressive swallow flights in the midst of raptor flights. It gets ... interesting ... trying to count under those conditions. One other good note; the weather was a lot cooler, thanks to all those storms in the area. Low 90's for a high, and we're anticipating cooler weather through the week and into the weekend.

Okay, enough ... so here's the final tally for the day:

Osprey 1
Mississippi Kites 1756
Broad-winged Hawk 6301
Swainson's Hawk 2
Red-tailed hawk 1
Caracara 2
-----------------------
Total 8063 What a day!! 

September 04, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

We got rained out today at 11:15 central standard time, but before that we managed to catch some kites moving just ahead of the storms. There was a liftoff of well over 100 Miss. kites around 9am, and by closing time we saw several hundred more migrating through at very low altitudes, as there were no thermals to speak of. The total for the day, in 3.75 hours of watching, was:

483 Mississippi kites
1 Broadwinged hawk

Tomorrow might be soggy again, but it looks to be a promising weekend!

Thanks, Taylor. (not a word from him or Ricardo about yesterday. <grin!>) Well, anyone watching radar today can be reassured, what you saw was what really happened out here today, for a change! Rain all over. Some really spectacular late morning lightning shows, too, according to my husband, who drove through the middle of them and their associated storms en route to Rockport today. We even got rained on pretty good at my lab in Port Aransas, where most of the weather has usually just been sailing merrily on past us, heading for the mainland. Tomorrow is said to be the last of the rain days, with a beautiful weekend promised along with some cooler temps. 

About yesterday, John Economidy confirms tonight that during his days leading the watch (pre-HWI), the earliest big day he had of 5000-plus broadies was around September 18/19. We're still trying to figure out where yesterday's guys came from. Early August reports from our Canadian friends indicated shifting and movement but no big numbers. Must've been a lot of little movements that culminated in a big clog at the drain behind those dual-fronts. We're still bouncing about it. <grin!> Keep on eating that chocolate, folks, so we can get all the watches pumped up!  

September 5, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

Today was much nicer weather than was expected, and we saw more species today than we have all season. Especially exciting were the long awaited swallow-tailed kites, the first accipiters of the season, and the first peregrine falcon! We also were treated to very close looks at both kinds of kites in the thermal-less morning when they kettled right over the hill. 

The totals for Friday are:
5 Ospreys
6 Swallowtail kites
1,432 Mississippi kites
1 Sharpshinned hawk
1 Cooper's hawk
1 Red-shouldered hawk
258 Broadwinged hawks (they're coming...)
6 Swainson's hawks
3 American kestrels
1 Peregrine falcon

That's 1,714 raptors today, all except two were between 9am and 3pm central standard time.

Thanks, Taylor! Not bad for a Friday. Let's hope they continue to stay in close. Hey, before I forget, for those folks coming out to the watch site at Hazel Bazemore, keep your eyes peeled at the turnoff for the park entrance. We have a traffic light now! Yes, folks, we've joined the 21st century out there and someone has seen fit to finally put a light at the intersection of FM624 and what is now called (in a nice, big sign) County Road 69. Of course, that means no more playing chicken with the nice folks in the big trucks barreling down the highway at 70+ miles an hour. At least, not at that intersection. <grin!> Thank goodness! It was starting to get a little hairy getting back on the highway to go home come 5-6pm. 

September 6, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

6 Ospreys (most so far in a day this season)
268 Mississippi kites
2 Red shouldered hawks
171 Broadwinged hawks
5 Swainson's hawks
1 American kestrel
1 Unidentified flying buteo
6 Unidentified flying raptors
too many swallows, but less than yesterday
4 clouds
Total raptors: 460

A really, really nice day. Maybe not real high in numbers, but the weather was capital. A small cool front moved through the area and combined with the wet front that sat over our area for days after TS Grace made landfall, temps finally dipped down to manageable levels for more than an hour. North/northeasterly breezes kissed us most of the day. Watch started off with a few close, nice views of some overnighting broadies at the watch site. Joel found the first one, an adult sitting in the brushline on the north/northeast side of the watch (right behind tree 4, for those of you who know our tree-marking system). It didn't seem interested in being observed for very long, and flew off to find a quieter perch as we set up the site for the day. A second one was noted flitting to a better perch on the east side and I found a third, a juvenile, about 20 minutes later that had flown into a snag just behind tree 7. The third one entertained us for many minutes as it sat out on the snag and groomed its feathers in the morning sun, still wet from the night's dose of dew. Bill was able to get some good video of it, which was fortunate, because about ten minutes into its lengthy grooming session, a big red squirrel decided to investigate the interloper on what the squirrel apparently considered its own personal snag. The squirrel twitched its way up the snag, shaking the branches as it came, which in turn jostled the broadie, which looked back down the trunk to see what was disturbing its morning constitutional. The closer the squirrel got, the more curious and cautious the broadie got ... until finally the squirrel made a lunge at the broadie. The broadie backed up on the snag and decided the heck with all this interruption, and gracefully flew off to find a squirrel-free perch. A good laugh to start the day! 

You'll note Taylor even logged in the clouds for the day. For the entire morning, we couldn't buy a cloud, but boy, could we sell you haze. Lots and lots and lots of haze. The day started to shape up to be a real "Haze-l Day" but happily, our predictions for clouds came through for the afternoon, and by mid-afternoon, we had a good population. By watch end, the clouds had taken a powder again. We anticipate Sunday might shape up to be like today, hopefully with a few more birds catching up to us from all those storms up north and east. 

Greetings also to our new friends from The Hawk And Owl Trust in the UK, who dropped by the watch to say hi while on a birding tour of south Texas. They're doing good conservation and education work across the pond; check them out at www.hawkandowl.org. 

September 7, 2003:

The totals for Sunday are:

3 Ospreys
66 Mississippi kites (where did all the kites go?)
1 Northern Harrier nice and low out in front
1 Cooper's Hawk
244 Broadies
9 Swainson's hawks
1 Red tailed hawk (also the resident juvenile was around all day)
3 Kestrels, all in the same hour
1 unidentified accipiter
2 unidentified raptors
Total: 331

Thanks, Taylor.

Ouch. My eyes hurt. I think many of us ran for cool cloths (and some for a little aloe vera) after today's nearly cloudless day of hazy gazing. Clouds finally started showing, but it didn't do much good in terms of keeping hawks low. Many flights were still pretty high, into the haze level. Many others were surprisingly low. Taylor and Ricarco did record a small liftoff this morning of about 14 kites and a broadwinged hawk. It's a start! The air temps continue to remain lower than normal and we all reveled in that. Made those long waits in between birds a lot more pleasant. The weather should hold a bit for several more days, but a front bringing thunderstorms and rain is expected by the end of the week, which may set up conditions for a little push ahead of the front. 

Dicky birds continue to be fun to watch. The resident green jays played their usual hide and seek on the hill. Kiskadees can be heard and sometimes seen throughout the day. Orioles continue to move through though not in great numbers. Baltimores mostly, though I heard of a Bullock's being sighted the other day. Orchards are about done. The Bell's vireo is still on the hill; I think it's being seen nearly every day. Twitchy but cooperative, we all got a look at it today. The javelina family was shy today; not making an appearance at the watch site. Too many people all over the park, I guess. Including a large kids birthday party up the hill at the pavilion with a yappy dog that kept up a concert the entire day (don't dogs get hoarse after awhile? This little poodle never did, even after eight hours of nearly incessant yapping, but then, it apparently didn't like being restricted to a lead the entire day, either). Chocolate continues to bring in birds (<grin!>) and anhingas continue to pass through. Yesterday we racked up about a thousand. Today not quite so many, but between the anhingas and the 30-some wood storks we had today, along with the increase in swallows (joy) and the dragonflies that were at every level of the sky and covered every color of the rainbow, there was plenty of sky action look at! Come on out and keep your counters company, regardless of where your nearest watch is!    

September 8, 2003:

Joel's report from the hill:

A very pleasant day! Love that low humidity, and the high cirrus clouds really made the hawks stand out. Ricardo's favorite was the Harris' Hawk that is quite rare in his home country of El Salvador. Eleven species is good for this time of year.

Osprey.................4
Swallow-tailed Kite..1
Mississippi Kite....19
Cooper's Hawk......5
Red-shouldered.....1
Broad-winged......776
Swainson's...........4
Red-tailed.............2
Harris' Hawk.........1
Am. Kestrel..........6
Peregrine Falcon...1
Unidentified Buteo..1
Total- 821

Thanks, Joel. Those balmy days are a blessing, all right. Another swallow-tailed kite, eh? I knew it!! We were joking over the weekend that the next swallow-tailed kite would probably come on Monday. Smarty-pants kite, sure enough, it did!  

September 9, 2003: 

Joel's report from the hill:

After yesterday's 800 plus count today was a real letdown. Toward mid-day the thunderstorms moved in all around us, finally rained out at 1:45 PM.

Cooper's Hawk...........1
Broad-winged Hawk...16
Swainson's Hawk........3
Unidentified Buteo.......1
Total- 21

Thanks, Joel. Thunderboomers are expected throughout the rest of the week, off and on. From what the weather guys said tonight, more on than off. The weekend is supposed to be clear and a "cold" front is due in on Sunday.  

September 10, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

A strong south wind all day and stormy weather to the north kept the hawks away today. We did see a roadrunner twice today, it climbed a mesquite tree, frightened some doves, and flew down the hill. Temperatures were very high but the wind cooled us down a bit. Wednesday's results:

5 Mississippi kites (two lifted off nearby at 9:30 HawkWatch time, three passed overhead, fairly low, around 1:00)
1 Swainson's hawk (with the three kites).

Even the resident vultures and white-tailed hawks were rare sights on this windy day, I saw the resident Swainson's once around 3:00.

Thanks, Taylor. Yup, mom said there'd be days like this. Tomorrow is supposed to be another on-off-on rain day. The hawks that are actually flying will likely be ducking and dodging throughout south Texas tomorrow. 

Speaking of ducking and dodging, somehow I goofed up the Swainson's count yesterday on the totals-to-date below, which also goofed up the season-to-date total. I somehow ended up with two more birds on the tally than actually were logged in. I think my eyes hiccuped when I transferred the numbers from the spreadsheet to my tally list below. *sigh* Wait, it's a full moon tonight (really!); can I blame the error on lunar influences? <grin!> It should be correct now; apologies for any confusion. 

September 11, 2003 (We Will Never Forget):  

Taylor's report from the hill:

Not much to tell... more south winds, and another slow day at the watch. We didn't see anything until almost 11 hawk time, 12 normal time. We closed the watch a half hour early since we hadn't seen a hawk for 3 hours. The total is 4 birds:

1 Mississippi kite
3 Broadwinged hawks, together

It was also hot, up to 36c at one point. We are hopeful that this weekend's front will bring big kettles and lower temperatures!

Thanks, Taylor. Hmmm, mom never did say just how many days like this there'd be. The weekend must be stacking up to be gangbusters! Actually, as I write this, a HUGE solid border-to-border storm front is moving south towards us from San Antonio. No telling what tomorrow will bring. Supposedly rains will be pounding us into the early morning, but afterwards, when the skies clear ... it could be an awesome day. Keep your eyes up!  

September 12, 2003:

Rained out. Stormed out. BIG storm rained out. Wow. Our area got more damage from that one storm (which was actually nothing more than a strong front passing through ... a really, really strong front) than from the two tropical storms and one hurricane we've already weathered over the past two months. Time for a really good cold front. 

September 13, 2003:

Taylor's report: 

Today we had some nice weather and a few small kettles... also some falcons! Most of the birds were flying fairly low, and arrived between 12:00 and 2:00, though we had a nice liftoff of 81 broadwingeds from nearby the site at around 10:00. 520 raptors for the day.

1 Osprey
35 Mississippi Kites
468 Broadwinged hawks
3 Swainson's
1 Red tailed hawk
5 Am. Kestrels
2 Peregrine falcons
1 Prairie falcon
2 Crested Caracaras, together at 8:45 am
1 unidentified buteo
1 unidentified raptor

Thanks, Taylor. Taylor noted the broadies came in for the most part within two hours, from about 10am-12 noon, if I recall correctly. 

Speaking of time for a really good cold front ... we're due a front of some kind tomorrow, late afternoon or early evening. It's starting out as a cold front. As you know, they don't always stay "cold" by the time they hit our coast. Any kind of front will be welcome, though, to continue pushing the hawks on through that got backed up by that huge front that came through here Friday morning.  

September 14, 2003:

This was too bizarre of a day to just let go with a normal report (whatever that is!). Texas weather, you've all heard the jokes. Let me tell you, it's no joke. We had everything but snow on the hill today in the space of a few hours! We started out hot, sultry and humid. Real hothouse weather. Which, after a warm yesterday's promise of a cold front coming in, was a bit of a surprise. Hordes of mosquitoes greeted us on the hill before the stations were even set up. The typical light wind morning sank to a no wind morning and allowed the mosquitoes to consider carrying us off. But lucky for us, the fire ants that popped up all along the watch site kept us fairly well grounded, and hopping (literally) each time we'd run into, onto or near one of their many exploratory trails networked across the watch site. Bob Creglow has been faithfully chasing them with fire ant bait and killer since watch began. Not quite sure who was chasing what by today. No one stayed in one place very long for risk of being bitten, stung or left dripping with sweat. Visitors brought chocolate to stave off the slack periods, so we started passed out portions and got a few hawks in return. The day was showing promise! 

Then the aforementioned front decided to make its presence known. All morning long, dark clouds on the northern front built and built and got angrier and darker, and lightening flashed, and thunder rumbled. Nature was putting on an interesting show in between trickles of raptors that managed to slip through the storm and make it over the hill. Complete with two, count them, two funnel clouds along the northern horizon that Bill and I even got on our digital still and video cameras! Those were quite exciting. Nearly as exciting as the nearly dozen javelina (hoggies, collared peccary, or Texas version of a warthog, for those of you who've never seen them before) that suddenly surprised us all next by sneaking up on us from the south through the 17th tee box of the next-door neighbor country club's golf course. The majority of the javelina were less than impressed with the barbed wire fence set up around the tee box's perimeter (no doubt to keep those pesky hawk watchers in the park next door in their place, as one round of late morning golfers who were already well into their cups seemed to think). Watch coordinator Joel Simon was sitting at the fence corner, watching the eastern skies with his back to the tee box when the snuffling noises suddenly got his and several other hawk watchers' attention. The javelinas must've noticed Joel and Bob and Jimmy (the "corner crew") about the same time they noticed the javelinas. Everyone jumped in surprise. The javelinas jumped higher, and about six of them made a mad dash towards the watch site (and watchers!) to head for their favored brush line clear across our watch on the north side. We all stood gaping in surprise as the pigs darted through the site. All but three ... those guys decided there was too much of a human obstacle course, so they squealed their way down the fence line and came out down hill right in front of a couple walking their dog. Oh, to have had the video camera on the entire scene! The couple and little dog spun around as the hogs broke through the fence line and headed around them into the park for the brush line. We spun around watching the hogs break left and right around us. The hogs spun around in a frenzy trying to figure out what the fence was all about (an open four-line barbed wire that they all easily slipped through without injury, but apparently recognized as some sort of barrier. That, or else the smell of our sun block and mosquito spray completely assaulted their rather sensitive noses (their sight isn't that great) and they mistook us for some sort of hog bordello. 

Let's see, what else? Did I mention the red-tailed hawk that was seen moments later chasing a park feral cat down the fairway? The cat narrowly missed becoming breakfast thanks to that same fence line that offered just enough cover downhill of the watch site to discourage the red tailed (probably the winter juvenile) from slamming into the under brush after it, which red tails are quite good at doing. The presence of humans just a little too close probably influenced its decision as well. 

The storm leading edge finally blew in for real. The lightening got a little close for comfort, and we uneasily watched the eastern skies as the storms grew even closer to us on that front. Corpus Christi to the east of us got pounded by some spotty gully washers here and there, though by the end of the day, most of the city was deluged at one point or another. As the weather grew grimmer for our little hilltop site, and the lightening drew closer to our aluminum poled canopies on the top of the highest hill in the county, right next to the biggest thunderheads adjacent to the watch (can you say "easy target"), Bill and I decided to pack up our little seating section a bit early. Around 2pm, we'd barely got half our canopy collapsed and folded when suddenly someone yelled "swallow-tailed kite!". Naturally, the canopy, chairs and everything else in hand at the moment fell to the ground as we scrambled for binos and cameras. No, wait, not one, but two swallow-tailed kites! Whoa! And some Mississippis for company! Awesome! After dribblings of hawks throughout the morning, that was a nice sight! 

The fun wasn't quite over yet. We chuckled at one of the winter resident red-shouldered hawks as it practiced its smack-downs and head-rapped another passing raptor through the site and out of its airspace. I laughed at two scissor-tailed flycatchers chasing a treetop level migrating harrier that went right by us, thinking it might pick up a little snack en route. We got nice close looks and some more video. The harrier got itself chased out of the area by the flycatchers which chased it south clear across the 17th fairway. No takeaway for today, thank you. The flycatcher pair came flying chattering back to their tree perch, seemingly rather pleased with their tag-team effort. 

The weather ... oh yes, that weather. As noted, it started sultry, humid and hot and still; then went stormy, cooler and somewhat breezier . The mosquitoes faded as the storms came closer (nice side effect), then disappeared altogether when the winds got down to an period of actually cooler temperatured breezes. Then when the rains finally fell and the storms broke (all around us but not on top of us), the weather went right back to sultry, humid, hot and still!. Just like someone pulled up a window shade, it all came full circle! Swallows came back out, dragonflies that were blanketing the watch site and had disappeared with the weather came zipping right back out and back in business. A complete circle of weather, everything but snow. Nexrad later showed hail in some of those thunderheads as they came in from the north; none on the watch site, thankfully, so we even had the hail and tornadic funnels covered! What a day. 

Finally, around 4:30pm, Bill and I called it a day for real and headed home, happy with the nice variety of migrants for the day, including the first merlins, and our ever-present favorite peregrine. We were last off the hill yesterday; waiting out the really nice evening to see if anything would set down. One Swainson's waggled overhead, but no broadies or kites settled in last night. Tonight, we decided to leave half an hour early, and let the crew and rest of the gang close the watch today, thinking the weather had closed in and locked us down for flights anyway. Goes to show you what "assuming" does! Taylor can pick up the story here, along with the day's tally: 

Patty-

I'll let you tell the story of the first part of the day, here is the part after you left.

I guess that you kind of missed, that is, missed, about half the hawks today. When we were packing up to leave, I noticed a large number of winged objects that turned out to be broadwingeds, circling around a bit to the east. It turned out to be about 350, they went south a ways out of sight, and were followed a minute later by 150 more. This second group set down around the watch site, so we are expecting to see them lift off tomorrow, plus more from over around Pollywog pond and to the north past where we could see. It was fun watching them hover all around, very low, and pick places to roost, then zoom down into various shrubs. With these low broadwingeds were a couple kestrels, a swainson's, 2 merlins, and 7 swallowtailed, hah just kidding, mississippi kites. So in the last hour we ended up with 529 birds, too bad everyone but Bob and Jimmy had left! Hope you see you in the morning for the liftoff.

Totals for Sunday:
1 osprey
2 swallowtailed kites
143 mississippi kites
1 harrier, flew right in front of us
813 broadwinged hawks
9 swainson's hawks
6 am. kestrels
3 merlins
1 peregrine falcon
1 unidentified falcon
1 unidentified raptor
enough cheeseburgers thanks to vicki simon (Ed. note: Vicki made the lunch run to WhatABurger for everyone at the hill today; no small feat juggling food for nearly a dozen folks. Thanks, Vicki!)

Unfortunately, Bill and I won't make the liftoff tomorrow thanks to those pesky jobs we have to nurture to pay our hawk watching habit bills. But I hope those of you reading this (if you're still awake!) and are close enough to come in, do so! Hit the hill early tomorrow morning and catch the liftoff! They usually start flying anywhere from 9am onward, depending on lift and thermal action.  

September 15, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill: 

Well, the liftoff wasn't so big after all, 74 broadies (not officially counted again today of course). The rest of the day was fun and exciting, we got some larger kettles of broadwingeds, the biggest so far except for that one day Joel and Vicki had with 6000 in a kettle. Today's action was mostly between 12pm and 4pm normal time. The biggest hour was 2-3 normal time, with 2190 hawks (2162 were broadies). Ricardo and Taylor are finally getting to practice counting by tens, just in time! Also some good species variety today (11 migrants, plus vultures and redshouldered and whitetailed makes 15 raptor species)...

5 Ospreys
142 Mississippi kites
1 Northern Harrier
1 Sharp-shinned
1 Cooper's
5489 Broadwingeds
10 Swainson's
4 Red-taileds
11 American kestrels
1 merlin
4 Peregrines
2 unidentified buteos

That's 5671 hawks today, not 10,000 yet but still a great day, especially after last week! The weather was kind as well, we had low temperatures and a cool breeze all morning, and afternoon wasn't bad either. By the end of the watch there was heavy rain all around, and we started getting sprinkles as we closed up.

Thanks, Taylor! I KNEW IT! I just knew today was going to be really good! Gut feeling, ya know? A very nice spread, indeed. And very glad to see Taylor and Ricardo are getting some count practice before the peak passage begins. Those hawks were backed up behind all those storms from the past few days. Now that skies are breaking between us and the east coast, the migration express is picking up speed again. Hang on to your sacks of chocolate, here we go!  

September 16, 2003 (Diez y Seis):

Ricardo's report from the hill: 

There were lot of rain showers so we got rained out today. Probably you could imagine it so! We saw a total of 6 birds this morning. 

American Kestrel 5
Broad winged hawk 1

Thanks, Ricky. I'm amazed that anything flew today. Rain was socked in on radar everywhere I looked, and Port Aransas/Ingleside on the Bay got deluged with up to five inches of rainfall in the morning. That front that blew through on Sunday backed up when it hit the warm, moist Gulf air and backed back up on us today. More rain in store for us tomorrow as the "back" (is that what you call a front that's backed up?) blows its energy out on us. 

September 17, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill: 

Not much to tell... Today we had overcast skies and a strong east wind all day, and we didn't see any hawks until after 2pm normal time. There were numerous Baltimore orioles around, and we got good looks at the yellow-breasted chat and the olive sparrow in the morning. We also saw flocks of several hundred white pelicans. Today's total is 8 hawks...

2 Ospreys
6 Mississippi kites, about 30 feet overhead moving slowly.

We ended up closing the watch 45 minutes early because of an approaching storm. We had been drizzled on in the AM also, but not enough to close down. Temperatures today were very pleasant as it was almost never sunny and practically dark a few times.

Thanks, Taylor. Another soggy day here and there around the Coastal Bend. Forecasters say tomorrow will be more of the same, with another front due in this weekend. 

Congratulations to Hawk Ridge in Minnesota for breaking their broadwinged hawk record wide open on Monday, September 15th (www.hawkridge.org)! 102,000+ hawks winged through their watch Monday, and are now headed our way. Depending on weather, and we might be seeing those same hawks over our watch about mid-next week. A Hazel Bazemore Chocolate Salute to Hawk Ridge!  

September 18, 2003: 

No watch today ... mother nature had her way with us and kept us indoors. Between 3-7 inches of rain fell across our area. Forecasters promise us more rain tomorrow. 

Hope all you guys in and around Isabel are safe. 

September 19, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

Today was better than expected. I think that there was a lot of rain to the south, but we were at the northern edge of it (it didn't really rain at the park all day), and we had some good northeast winds, and nice cool temperatures thank god. Overcast and not really any thermals, but enough wind to still bring some birds through relatively low. We started an hour late today because of weather, and when Ricardo and I arrived Joel was already there, running around like a crazy man and trying to look at something over the golf course behind the trees. We stopped and asked what he was after, I figured we were missing a liftoff, and he said "zone tailed hawk!" and kept running around looking for it. We parked quickly and got out, I noticed a large bird that looked like a turkey vulture hovering above the site so we got our binocs out to check, meanwhile Joel is shouting from by the kiosk "get over here, do you see a turkey vulture out there?" and I say yes, and instead of looking at the bird I go to where Joel is, thinking he has saved me time by getting me off of a time-wasting TV. Then I explain that yes, there was a tv, and he says NO, THAT'S A ZONE TAILED! I'm thinking, damn, that's what I thought before you started talking about a vulture, so we run around to the front of the site again and there is the zth floating in plain view. It stuck around for 35 minutes, 60 times longer than normal according to Joel, flying casually back and forth in front of the site. It was at eye level and about 100 feet away sometimes. Vicki even got to see it in her scope from the nearby Simon Residence, and called birthday boy Jimmy Swartz who was able to add the zth to his formidable yard list. After that excitement, we got a group of 21 Mississippi kites, and a couple of hours later 15,000 broadies in three simultaneous kettles! After that things were slow, but what a great start. So here are the totals:

3 Ospreys
35 Mississippi kites
15,945 Broadies
1 Red tailed hawk
1 Zone tailed hawk
3 kestrels
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine
1 Unidentified accipiter
1 unidentified raptor
Day total: 15,992

There was also a sharp-shinned that we didn't count since it flew the wrong way. So not bad! When the weather cooperates, expect kettles!

Thanks, Taylor! What an outstanding report! Our first five-figure broadie day. Ohhhh yeah ... here we go!! Pray for no rain and another catch-up day for hawks. We're in business now! (..... a zone-tail 100 feet up and cruising around for 35 minutes ..... MAN!! What Bill and I wouldn't have given to have been at the watch today! Come on, Saturday!) And a VERY happy birthday to our "daddy" of the watch, Jimmy Swartz! May you have many, many more!  

September 20, 2003:

Taylor's report from the hill:

1 Osprey
3 Mississippi kites
58 broadies
2 kestrels
2 peregrines
1 unidentified raptor
Total: 67

Watch was 0930-1400 hawk watch time (mountain time).

Thanks, Taylor! Watch got cut short today by Mother Nature. No funnels today (thankfully), just wind, rain and clouds. Radar showed bands of rain across all of south Texas all day long, which essentially shut down flights from Austin on south. The fastest moving critters on the hill this afternoon were the hawk watchers, especially when that last big squall broke over the ridge line. It made a freight-train bee-line straight for us instead of going around the watch, as all the other storms did throughout the day. Paperwork (by the counters) and cameras (by the rest of us) got saved first and everything else got hauled down and thrown in vehicles in record time. Still and all, a really fun day of visiting and catching up with friends in between the few hawks that dared to break through the weather. Libby spotted the only kettle of broadies of the day. Fourteen wood storks were seen in the distance. The best treats of the day were John Economidy's soliloquies on the hill (John, me boyo ... we've missed ya so!) and a visit from one of our falconer friends and his bay-winged partner. 

A side note to local attendees to our watch: the microwave tower at the top of the hill apparently popped a guy-wire the other day. Didn't hurt anyone, thankfully, and the tower's got plenty support to spare, but it did cause the park to close the main road access to the watch site (the road running in front of the park office). You'll have to go straight on in and down to the river basin and come back up by the pond to get to the site until the guy-wire is fixed. Another caution; we're told the dozen-plus inches of rain we've had the last week or so may cause our water reservoirs up river to release excess water in the coming week. If this happens, since the Nueces River is already at bank level, and a little over banks in some spots in the park, any releases will likely shut down that river side drive-around and we'll be hoofing it in. 

September 21, 2003:

Rained out; no hawks. 

September 22, 2003: 

It's The Chocolate!! Actually, the weather finally broke and the hawks finally started coming through gangbusters, just like we knew they would! If you work tomorrow, don't! Come on out to the hill. We're going to have one heck of a lift off!! Pass the word, and don't be late! We estimate at least 20,000 broadwings settled down in and around the park, literally on top of us at the watch site. The last of us left the hill at 7pm, and small kettles were still coming in. Broadies packed the trees at the watch site and along the park's bluff, as well as the Wood River area west of the park. Hourly totals for raptors today (central Texas time) are as follows: 

8:30am -9:00am: 2
9-10 2
10-11 4,840
11-12 25,730
12-1 11,328
1-2 3,694
2-3 9,369
3-4 3,714
4-5 11,229
5-6 17,774 (watch stayed open late due to flights)

Interesting footnotes; the merlins were awesome! We think this may be a day record for merlins ... 13, wow! Peregrines came through in fine numbers, too; they're also starting to catch up for the fall to date counts. Our first migrating vultures this early were a bit of a surprise, but there you go. We never know what migration will be like from year to year. Especially with the wild card of the weather thrown in the mix. Today we racked up 13 different species. After so many days of rain and rainouts, it was an awesome day! 

To our friends at Little Round Top, Susan Fogelman made it here just fine and was on hand to watch tens of thousands of broadies wing by during the day and saw nearly all of the set-down broadies tonight. She says she wishes you all were here! <grin!> Don't worry; I saw her wielding her video camera like a knight wields a sword as those broadies set down practically on top of our heads tonight. She should have some good video to show you guys when she gets home (but you can't have her back until next week! <grin!>). 

Okay, I promised not to yack on all night, so here are the totals, after a lot of mindbending paperwork by Joel, Ricardo and Taylor (who got more of a regular Hazel broadie baptism today):

40 turkey vultures
17 ospreys
27 mississippi kites
2 harriers
4 sharpies
9 coopers hawks
1 red shouldered
87,429 broadies
17 swainsons
9 red taileds
42 kestrels
13 merlins
29 peregrines
3 unidentified accips
4 unidentified falcons
6 unidentified raptors
total: 87,652 

September 23, 2003:

Man, what a nice liftoff this morning! Despite the river being so high the bottom land park roads were flooded; the closing off of the upper road access thanks to our state police's microwave tower busting a guy-wire; and humidity and mosquitoes that kept us alternately scratching/slapping and wiping our brows this morning, several dozen intrepid folks braved the conditions to get to the hill in time for the show. Houston, we had lift off! More than 21,000 broadies took flight after their overnight snooze, thrilling the folks on the hill, some of whom had not seen anything quite like a Hazel Bazemore lift off, and weren't sure just which direction they should look next. When broadies are coming over, around and from behind you, sometimes it's hard not to be a whirling dervish.

The rest of the day brought more storm-backed up broadies on down, but we're still just at the tip of the kettle, so to speak. We did have some hawks set down this evening, so there will likely be a lift off again tomorrow, albeit much, much smaller than today's. Taylor has the break out of broadies by the hour for us. Note the times listed are "hawk watch time" which corresponds to Hawk Watch International standard (aka mountain) time. Add an hour to bring it up to Texas (central) time: 

7-8 0.
8-9 liftoff... 15,910....
9-10 still liftoff... 36,522.
10-11 only 4,673.
11-12 big kettles...21,769.
12-1 siesta... 4,043.
1-2 kettles... 11,348.
2-3 more kettles... 18,352.
3-4 more kettles... 6,542.
4-5 bedtime... 143.

Now for the day's totals of all hawks. Thanks, Taylor!

The totals of everything on 9/23/03:
4 Turkey vultures
15 Ospreys
16 Mississippi kites
5 Sharp-shinned hawks
20 Cooper's hawks
1 Red-shouldered hawk
119,302 Broadwinged hawks
44 Swainson's hawks
11 Red-tailed hawks
1 Harris' hawk
24 American kestrels
4 Merlins
11 Peregrine falcons
2 Prarie falcons
2 Crested Caracaras
1 unidentified accip.
2 unidentified falcons
1 unidentified raptor
Total for the day: 119,466

Our first six-figure day with 15 species on the board! Great job, everyone! 

September 24, 2003:

A note to our readers on the BirdHawk newsgroup. It's just come to my attention that guys apparently didn't any of my posts past September 18th. I checked into it, and sure enough, the last five all got kicked back, thanks to an apparently unannounced change by listserv to their email posting policies that I wasn't aware of. I've updated how I send the reports and while the header isn't as uncluttered as I'd like, hopefully everyone is seeing the posts again. I won't flood BirdHawk by repeating those missing posts. Every one of my daily reports can always be found on my Texas Hawk Watches web site (www.ccbirding.com/thw/). If you want to see hawk numbers, you'll want to go catch up. We've had a LOT of hawks during the past two days! 

I haven't gotten the official numbers from the counters yet for today, so we'll catch up on overalls tomorrow. A light day; around 10,000 or so, I think. But I'll definitely have to take a few minutes to tell you about the bird of the day. Actually, two birds. The first showed up about 3:50pm. Our counter, Ricardo, collected extra chocolate and hugs when he alerted everyone on the hill to a passing zone-tailed hawk! Shouts went up again a few minutes later when a SECOND zone-tailed hawk came through the watch, right overhead, giving everyone another round of good looks and photo ops. The first was an immature zone-tailed. The second was an adult. The first came through with three turkey vultures, so we not only got a look at it, but at its interaction with and similarity to the vultures. Just about when we'd finally calmed down 30 minutes later, one of the zone-tailed hawks came back through the watch and got us all stirred up again! Hey, a great excuse to pass out more chocolate, far as I was concerned. Near as we can tell, besides breaking our previous season high (2) for zone-tails by one (so far!), it's also the first time more than one showed up in one day. 

Here are Wednesday's totals:
6 Ospreys
1 Mississippi Kite
8 Sharpies
5 Cooper's hawks
7,482 broadwingeds
3 Swainson's
1 White tailed hawk
2 zone tailed hawks
10 kestrels
3 merlins
2 peregrines
1 unidentified accip.
total birds:  7,584

Most of the broadies (5,973) were between 10 and 11 HWT (hawk watch time, aka local standard time. NOT mountain time, as I mentioned earlier; sorry!).
  
8-9: 691
9-10: 95
11-12: 62
12-1: 460
1-2: 179
2-3: 22

Thanks, Taylor!! 

September 25, 2003: 

Taylor has the totals from today:
61 Turkey vultures
14 Ospreys
21 Mississippi kites
2 N. Harriers
11 Sharpshinned hawks
27 Cooper's hawks
2 red-shouldered hawks
78,151 broadwinged hawks
17 Swainson's hawks
2 red-taileds
12 kestrels
4 merlins
9 peregrines
5 unidentified accipiters
3 unidentified falcons
total: 78,341

Broadies by the Hour: a fair and balanced recap
9-10: 450
10-11: 467
11-12: 1731
12-1: 6704
1-2: 30,177
2-3: 12,315
3-4: 22,921
4-5: 3386

Thanks, Taylor! The morning was slow, but by noon, business picked up. By 4pm, we were wishing for an on-site masseuse for our necks and upper arms. We're slowly catching up to where we would have been had weather not been a factor the past few weeks. Greetings to the folks from Wimberley that joined us on the hill along with lots of our other friends and extended family this morning for the first day of our Celebration of Flight! And to Peter Wilkinson from England who got across the pond safely and joined us on the hill for some really capital broadie flights this afternoon. Jeff Smith got in safely tonight as well, and got to the hill just in time ... for not much! Sorry, Jeff, most of the hawks came in ahead of you today, though we did have a little set down business in the air just before watch closed for the day. Not much, but hey, you know how those hawks are. 

A good species spread today (13) and nice to see Mississippi kites still coming through. Visitors hold out hope another swallow-tailed kite or two will find their way over the site. Jeff's holding out for that aplomado falcon that sometimes rockets through the site (as one did on August 19). 

Something I noticed this week and found quite fascinating: Each season, I take last season's spreadsheet, clear it and update the dates and use a copy of it for the current season's numbers. This week, I've noticed that when I've logged in 5 and 6-digit flights for broadies, the numbers automatically turn red and are bold-faced for emphasis; literally red letter days. Interesting, because the same dates last year generated the same red-letter highlights for stepped-up flights. When I dredged up last fall's spreadsheet to use as a template for this fall's numbers, I forgot to clear the red & bold attributes on the individual cells from last fall's big day counts. Looks like deja vu all over again this fall. I'm now leaving the sheet alone for the entertainment of it, to see which days will pop up as "heavy" days from last fall as I log in each day's numbers for this fall. Yesterday was a bust, with only 7,400+ hawks, it wasn't a red-letter day, though it apparently was for 2002's count for that date. However, the 19th, 22nd and 23rd came up as red-letter days, right on schedule. It doesn't take much to entertain me; what can I say? Just keep feeding me chocolate!

As pleasant as today's raptor count was, there were some other counts that racked up much higher numbers. The mosquito count, for one thing. Mama! Those babies were just waiting for the right amount of rainfall to hatch out, and this week, boy, did they ever. I'm not talking those dainty little early-hatch wisps, either. These are Texas mosquitos. You know the kind, the ones that come in like little B-52's and then jerk your arm up as they withdraw. Sidebar discussions as to the most effective way to ward off those big black honkers can now be heard interspersed with hawk talk. The other big count, and a quick one it was, came in mid afternoon when a super kettle of honey bees flew across the western edge of the watch site. Unfortunately, we couldn't count them, either, as they insisted on flying south to north. They augered in, headed towards the pond, but most likely went right on through, searching for new territory. Every other year or so, we get huge flights of migrating bees and butterflies. Haven't had the butterflies (Mexican snouts) yet, but the rate this season is going, it wouldn't surprise me to see the multi-million flights of butterflies go through the watch this fall as well!   

September 26, 2003:

Where to start? Where to start? Okay, I'll take pity on all of you. We'll start with the numbers, courtesy of Taylor:

Species totals (17 species) for September 26, 2003:
7 turkey vultures
13 ospreys
1 swallowtailed kite!
35 mississippi kites
1 hook-billed kite, oh yes
1 bald eagle, thanks jeff smith!
5 northern harriers
37 sharp-shinned hawks
70 cooper's hawks
107,379 broadwinged hawks
28 swainson's hawks
8 red-tailed hawks
1 zone-tailed hawk
1 harris' hawk
37 kestrels
5 merlins
11 peregrines
6 unidentified accipiters
1 unidentified buteo
3 unidentified raptors
That's 107,650 for the day! 

Broadies by the hour, HWT:
8-9: 6087
9-10: 13,239
10-11: 6,205
11-12: 46,859 yes! (Editor's note: 44,460 were in one monster river that took 19 minutes to pass)
12-1: 5,542
1-2: 16,012
2-3: 9,281
3-4: 4154
That makes 107,379 total.

Thanks, Taylor! Man, what a day! I tell you, no season is ever the same twice, nor is any day in the season ever a repeat. Okay, yeah, I've probably dipped into the chocolate a bit much this week and it's showing in my "DOH!" observation, but really, it's true. Take today, for instance: 
A lift off this morning of six thousand, when we only saw a handful come in for the night before watch ended yesterday at 6pm local time (with at least 1.5 hrs of non-thermal daylight left). Not bad.
Seventeen species on the list for the day. Not bad. 
Six figures for the total raptors counted today. Not bad. 
A new raptor species added to the list to bring the total number to 30 of species seen at the watch since Hawk Watch International (HWI) came on scene. Not bad. 
Our first bald eagle of the season, thanks to Jeff "Eagle Eye" Smith of HWI. Not bad. 
Another zone-tailed hawk. Definitely not bad. 
A hook-billed kite overhead that brought nearly the entire hill to its feet. Say what?! Not bad? Holy Smokes! PRICELESS!! 
If this watch gets any more varied, wild or wooly, someone will have to come down here and peel every one of us out of the trees. We'll be swinging by our arms and gibbering. Unbelievable! Okay, we've had baldies and golden eagles before. Not many, grant you; we're not exactly eagle central down here, but we do get them and a number of both species have been documented as overwintering around here and in south Texas in general. The zone-tailed hawks are definitely stretching their ranges and expanding more eastward and southward. We've got some history now in recent years of sightings, and it's almost normal now to see them in the Hill Country in winter, near Austin, San Antonio, etc. Now ... that hook-billed kite had us all boonswoggled. I mean, yes, resident hook-billed kites are breeding down in the valley, and the valley is only about 180 miles south from us. Just a day trip for the hawks, as Jeff Smith put it. Maybe for the hawks, but for the change in habitat and ecosystems from there to here ... well, it really does just boggle the mind sometimes, the species that will find their way over our heads. 

A friend asked me privately earlier in the month why I list all the species in my dailies that have been over the watch in the year-to-date totals. Even if we hadn't seen any yet. I told them, somewhat tongue-in-cheek but actually quite seriously, it was because I was basically being lazy. I didn't want to have to add the species in as they got on the count list. I thought it would be easier to just leave them all on the list in the first place with zero sighted to date, then update the numbers as they began being seen. I also thought it would be fun for folks just finding us to see all the different kinds of raptors that could potentially be seen at the watch site. Imagine my mirth tonight when I went to tally in the hook-billed kite, and realized it wasn't even on my master spreadsheet, since it had never been officially seen at the watch before today! <grin!> Actually, I can recall some discussions over the past 8-9 years where there have been one or two sightings of mystery raptors in the past that had been speculated as being hook-billed kites. Well, today, it got on the books! And I had to update my spreadsheet to add in another column. The paperwork has been interesting for the watch staff to say the least. Good thing we fortify ourselves with chocolate every day. Speaking of ... it's worth noting that this fall, we've had a wider variety of types and blends of chocolate than usual in the community chocolate chest. And now we're getting a wider variety of raptors overhead. It does make one wonder .... 

Whew ... okay, what else? Let me look over my field notes. Oh, I jotted it up above and probably messed up the alignment of the hourly numbers, but it's worth noting again the largest river of broadies so far this fall. The river started at 12:49pm local time and ran out finally at 1:08pm local time, for a grand total of 44,460 broadies, plus an assortment of Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, falcons, and other buteos. 

Oh, I haven't even mentioned the white swan that winged overhead this morning. Yes, a white swan. For some reason, a white swan (Jeff thinks probably tundra) opted to overfly the watch. That raised more than a few eyebrows. We don't normally get wild swans down here. Just the ornamental type chicks like black swans that are bought and stocked in the occasional upper-income home's private pond. 

Another thing that is fun is something we teasingly call "baiting the counters". You know the game. That's when the "new" guys come on the hill, and at the first of watch and during the training sessions, we try to acclimate them as to what to expect. Especially when the peak passage period hits. Inevitably, unless they've done duty at Veracruz, they have no reference point for what we're telling them. We tell them anyway, again and again. Ricky and Taylor are two of the most good-natured guys you could hope to have on a watch site, and they humoured us quite well for the first six weeks of watch. Heh! Today I just had to chuckle, watching their heads shaking in disbelief at the flights, especially after that 44,000+ river came through. I think my favorite "gotcha!" reaction so far came immediately after that river, when Joel tallied up the clickers and announced the final tally. Taylor stood wide-eyed, taking it in, then shook his head and muttered "this is INSANE!" -- then shot us a big grin, and put his binos up to find some more! Wish I could tell you that's it, boys, you've seen it all now, but you still haven't seen the six-figure single flights stretching horizon to horizon that are possible on this hill! I hope we get at least one. It's something to see. Still and all, Ricky and Taylor got baptized quite well this week, and they both rose to the challenge and performed superbly under pressure. We're really proud of you guys! 

I knew we were done for the day, whether more hawks were flying or not, when the zone-tailed hawk just soared out of sight (after the bald eagle and h-b kite had long since passed), I asked about passing around more chocolate to bring in yet more hawks, and got the first resounding "NO!!" from the entire hill. <snicker!> We really fueled everyone up big-time today. Don't worry, folks; we'll pick it up again tomorrow! 

One final note: my books came in tonight!! <happy dance!> Hot off the presses, Brian K. Wheeler's new "Raptors of Eastern North America" and its companion book, "Raptors of Western North America" are being shipped as we speak. Princeton University Press published them; Amazon.Com and other major distributors sell them. Shameless plugs? You bet. Get them both. They are awesome! You will not believe some of the photos Brian's added to these latest books. And, even more impressive are the range maps; exact ranges mapped out by individual sightings of each raptor species. I'll publicly congratulate both Brian for doing the books (all that groveling for updates by so many of us over the years finally paid off) and John M. Economidy for creating and mapping the ranges for every species in Brian's books. A Herculean effort by both. Brian Wheeler and William Clark's field ID guide for raptors of North America has been the ID bible for our site since it first came out. We look forward to adding these two new tomes to our reference table. 

See you tomorrow! I'm going to go break in my new books by reviewing hook-billed kites and zone-tailed hawks ....  

September 27, 2003:

We're not quite swinging from trees yet, but this watch is definitely one for the books. Another zone-tailed hawk today! Got a couple passes by it before it moved out. And a second hook-billed kite sighting! We're surmising it was a repeat visit by the one that passed yesterday ... same overall field marks. 

Sisters Pat Makris and Mary Hager continue to prove genetics will win out with their phenomenal eyes. Since arriving on the hill this week from Pennsylvania along with Pat's husband, Tony (the swiveling hawk watch chair man!), they've consistently been able to find the most distant kettles in the worst haze and cloud conditions imaginable, and generally get the rest of us on them before the broadies disappear. Jeff Smith also did a marvelous job today locating falcons and accipiters, and we've even gotten him acclimated to those distant larger kettles now. Jeff was overheard commenting that one particular late afternoon kettle was just "a little one ... only about a thousand birds." <grin!> ... yup, it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? Our thanks also to Jeremy Dertien and family for making the trip to the hill again this fall. Jeremy's a special friend of our watch (great job handing out that chocolate, Jeremy!). 

My eyes are fried (along with the other counters' eyes; that haze is killer); my brain's melting and my tummy's full of shrimp tonight, so I'm going to hustle out the numbers and head for bed. Tomorrow's the last day of our Celebration of Flight's wonderful programs. At noon, area Native Americans will be on hand to conduct the traditional blessing ceremony for the hawk watch, and Jeff Smith will present his excellent programs on raptor radiotelemetry and migration studies. 

Species totals:
3 black vultures
8 turkey vultures
7 ospreys
3 Mississippi kites
1 northern harriers
43 sharp-shinned hawks
40 Cooper's hawks
19,615 broadwinged hawks
9 swainson's hawks
8 red-tailed hawks
1 zone-tailed hawk
57 kestrels
2 merlins
12 peregrines
9 unidentified accipiters
9 unidentified falcons
1 unidentified raptors
Total: 19,828

ADDENDUM 10/01: audits revealed some errors in the numbers. Here are the changes:

Osprey should have been 13 instead of 7- plus 6
Sharp-shinned should have been 45 instead of 43- plus 2
Cooper's should have been 41 instead of 40- plus 1
Broad-winged should have been 19626 instead of 19615-
plus 11
Kestrel should have been 58 instead of 57- plus 1
Unid. Accipiter should have been 10 instead of 9- plus 1
Unid. Falcon should have been 3 instead of 9- minus 6
Unid. Raptor should have been 2 instead of 1- plus 1
Total should have been 19846 instead of 19828- minus 18 

September 28, 2003:

LIFTOFF TOMORROW!!

Joel files today's report:

Another great day on the hill at Hazel Bazemore. Cooler north winds, clouds in the afternoon, and lots of hawks. The good news is that there was a real nice set down and so there will be a good liftoff tomorrow morning around 9:30. 

Turkey Vulture..........1
Osprey....................14
Mississippi Kite.......32
No. Harrier...............9
Sharp-shinned........133
Cooper's................103
Red-shouldered.........2
Broad-winged.....92,637
Swainson's..............10
Red-tailed................18
Am. Kestrel...........136
Merlin.......................3
Peregrine................13
Crested Caracara......2
Unid. Accipiter..........7
Unid. Falcon.............3
Unid. Raptor.............5
Total- 93,128

The best description of today's flight is that it was consistent all throughout the day after a slow start for the first hour and a half. The counts for accipters and kestrels were outstanding and also very consistent throughout the day.

8:30 to 10- 244
10 to 11- 14378
11 to 12- 8050
12 to 1 - 4932
1 to 2 - 18978
2 to 3 - 11024
3 to 4 - 17168
4 to 5 - 18354

Thanks, Joel. Accipiters continue to flood in, and falcons aren't too far behind. Thanks again to Jeff Smith of Hawk Watch International for coming down to participate in our Celebration of Flight. The presentations were really good. Thanks also to the Gulf Coast Indian Confederation for conducting the blessing ceremony for the watch. And to falconers Robert Benson and Ranger (Harris's hawk), and Chris Godfrey and The Edge (anatum peregrine falcon) for dropping by and giving folks a rare opportunity to see and learn about birds of prey first hand. 

The Celebration may be over but the hawk watch isn't nearly done! A lot of raptors are yet to come through and based on the numbers of hawks that set down tonight, there should be a good liftoff tomorrow morning, as Joel noted. Be there by 9am to be sure you don't miss a thing! 

September 29, 2003: 

Taylor files today's report:

Monday's results:
2 turkey vultures
9 ospreys
3 mississippi kites
6 northern harriers
40 sharp-shinned hawks
51 cooper's hawks
2 red-shouldered hawks
20,353 broadwinged hawks (including one dark morph)
5 swainson's hawks
4 red-tailed hawks
1 ferruginous hawk (formerly listed as unidentified buteo)
43 american kestrels
2 merlins
7 peregrines
2 prarie falcons
25 unidentified accipiters
2 unidentified falcons
9 unidentified raptors
total: 20,566

Felt like the first day of fall... clear skies, great thermals, lots of high-altitude mystery birds, invisible to the naked eye. The morning liftoff today was the largest that has been counted this season so far. 

Also today we got to look at sunspots through a portable solar telescope that was brought to the site! A good day, though it felt slow after the past week's action.

Thanks, Taylor. The morning's lift off was really nice, all right, but we later found out an even bigger lift off took place only eight miles or so west of the watch site. Out of our binos or scope view, of course. More's the pity, considering one of our volunteer hawk watchers, David O., was in the middle of it and counted around 150,000 broadies in a collection of kettles, rivers and streams that lasted 52 minutes. Included in his count were twenty dark-morph broadies and one immature bald eagle. The watch recorded its first dark-morph broadwing as well in the afternoon.

ADDENDUM 10/01: changed the 1 UB to 1 ferruginous hawk. 

September 30, 2003:

Ricky files today's report:

Black Vulture= 4
Turkey Vulture= 15
Osprey= 5
Mississippi Kite= 2
Northern Harrier= 2
Sharp shinned Hawk= 21
Cooper's Hawk= 47
Broad winged Hawks= 71,161!!!
Swainson's Hawk= 3
Red tailed Hawk= 4
American Kestrel= 28
Peregrine Falcon= 5
Prairie Falcon= 4
Unid. Accipiter= 17
Unid. Buteo= 1
Unid. Raptor= 2

Total= 71,321

We are still having very good numbers as you see. Today was great! But kind of difficult to see the birds cause they were flying really high, and I really mean high; even more than yesterday.

It was great to ID my first Prairie F. by myself. It was an awesome bird! Also, today Bill Clark was at the watch site for few hours. It was great to meet him! 

Thanks, Ricky! Glad to hear Bill Clark made it to the hill this fall. Always a pleasure. I only wish I could have been there to help out, too. Many of us had to pay the piper this week for our time off last week, and head back to work. I played hooky one extra day yesterday and was sure glad I did. Today, all I could do was stare out of the window of my island lab, munching on some chocolate, looking for passing falcons and accipiters and wishing I was inland at the watch site. <grin!> Skies were tough to scan with visibilities ranging from 25,000 feet to unlimited. Ouch. The ice compresses will sure feel good on tired eyes again tonight!

--- EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! ---

Ricky says yes, there were 24 dark morphs for the day (already included in the totals by hours, of course). Combined with the one I know of for Monday, that brings the dark morph broadwinged total to 25.   

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