Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch

Corpus Christi, Texas (Nueces County)

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

Greetings, all! Scott has today's report:

Well, the Broad-winged Hawks took a day off, and our migration count came to only a relative handful of birds. Let's not be so jaded, though, to not enjoy the fact that Peregrine Falcons were the most numerous bird of the day! Birds came by in singles and were spaced out with long breaks between sightings. All in all, today was very August-like, both in terms of hawk numbers and the return to super-steamy heat (97 for a high). Our best bird was a juvenile Peregrine that passed over within one hundred feet of us.

We were treated to a couple of close encounters with flycatchers, first a brilliant male Vermilion, and then an adult Scissor-tailed that perched on the wire above our heads.

Every morning, Dane and I continue the search for the Ringed Kingfisher that has been reported in the park, but to no avail. Belted and Green occupied the pond this morning.

Official results:
Osprey: 3
Northern Harrier: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 4
Broad-winged Hawk: 3
Swainson's Hawk: 3
American Kestrel: 2
Peregrine Falcon: 7
Unk. Accipiter: 4
Unk. Buteo: 1
Unk. Falcon: 1
TOTAL: 29

Thanks, Scott! Numbers were low but there's always something to appreciate on the hill, perched or migrating. One of those blessings was the return to the hill today of one of our core folks, Art Olsen. Art's been out for some surgery and gave us a little scare for a bit, but is back in action again! Take it slow, my friend, good to have you and Barb back together on the hill.

A final note on the single day, single site record. Paul at SMRR opened the archives and did find the site totals for each site in question for their record breaking day on Sept. 17, 1999. Here's his report:
 
"On 9-17-99, 543,478 Broad-winged Hawks were counted at the PMSGA count site. 11,893 BWs were seen at LEMP, thus the 555,371 total. We combine site records to make data collecting more complete. We recognize that not all sites can do this or will do this, but for our circumstances, it makes the most sense."
 
Thanks, Paul! Congrats all around once again! We're certainly happy with breaking our own single day, single site record, and we're looking forward again to possibly hitting the one million mark this season. SMRR's single site, single day record for Point Moillet State Game Area will also be remembered (certainly by me, <grin!>). There are always plenty of attaboys to go around!

While we're passing around attaboys, let me also pass on another fun note from Chris Fagyal of the Hawk Ridge count up in Duluth territory that came in this morning, too. Chris also went diving in the archives and we'd like to share another peek at his site's moment in the sun:
 
"Thought I'd send a little note since I found the numbers. Sept 15, 2003 was the big day for Hawk Ridge in Duluth. 102,329 of which 101, 698 were broad-winged. This was remarkable in many ways, most significantly being that count is more than most YEAR totals, let alone single day totals for Hawk Ridge. Only 2 other years, 1999 and 1993 had ever had a year larger than that one day. 2003's year total was 205,087. That was over 56,000 more than the previous record for a year in 1993."
 
Thanks, Chris! It's wonderful to see the increase in the number of overall sites that are experiencing some of those mind-blowing six-figure flights!

October 2, 2004:

Joel sends over the weekend numbers for us tonight:

Saturday, Oct 2:
Turkey Vulture: 5
Osprey: 9
Miss Kite: 1
Northern Harrier: 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 32
Cooper's: 14
Broad-winged Hawk: 12
Swainson's Hawk: 15
White-tailed Hawk: 1
Harris's Hawk: 1
American Kestrel: 11
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 5
Unk. Accipiter: 4
Unk. Buteo: 2
Unk. Raptor: 1
TOTAL: 118

The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi held it's annual hawk watch field trip Saturday and racked up an impressive 93 species for the day throughout the park! Joel says notables include the ringed kingfisher, back to entertain everyone, as well as an American redstart, a hooded oriole, a male vermilion flycatcher in its full brilliant neon red plumage and a warbling vireo. Rain held off until the crew literally started driving away from the watch at day's end. Quite a nice day all in all!  

October 3, 2004:

Sunday, Oct 3:
Black Vulture: 14
Osprey: 6
Miss Kite: 2
Northern Harrier: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 39
Cooper's: 7
Broad-winged Hawk: 440
Swainson's Hawk: 5
American Kestrel: 18
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 9
Unk. Accipiter: 5
Unk. Raptor: 4
TOTAL: 551

Weather today looked grim via radar but Joel says the morning was the only disappointment. After noon, the skies cleared and the weather was gorgeous. Good thing, as we were getting spotty rain deluges all over the Coastal Bend today thanks to that useless front that pooped out before it reached us. Typical weather system behavior. Another front is headed our way and due to do the same thing by Wednesday, coupled with a tropical wave working its way across the Yucatan peninsula by about the same time. A wet week in store, from all reports. Hopefully it'll clear in time for the next wave of raptors to come through by a weekend that is promised to be "gorgeous" ... we'll see! 

October 4, 2004:

Greetings, all! Dane and crew had another good spread of raptors through the watch today! Check out Dane's report:

Broad-winged : 1730
Red-tailed : 5
Swainson's : 56
TV's : 33
BV's : 30
Mississippi K. : 1
Sharpies : 78
Cooper's : 31
U. Accips : 35
Kestrels : 44
Peregrines : 10
Merlin : 2
Osprey : 39
Harrier : 6
U. Raptors : 7

1 dark-morph Broad-winged, flyover by Ringed Kingfisher.

Total Raptors = 2107

Thanks, Dane! Nice to see the ringed kingfisher is hanging around. With belted and green kingfishers also in the area, birders have enjoyed several 3-kingfisher days.

Wow ... 39 osprey! That's a good number! Falcons are also holding strong (October's their month). Swainson's are starting to pick up a little. I love seeing those Mississippi kite numbers in October ... those little guys just keep on coming! Accips are doing well, too; looks like it's been a good year for most species, all in all. At least in terms of what we're seeing through the watch.  

October 5, 2004: 

Greetings, all! Scott and crew didn't let the wet weather dampen any spirits on the hill today! Check out his awesome report!

7874 away from 1 million for the year!!

Today's observation was shortened by an hour and a half by rain approaching from the south. Forecasts predict heavy widespread rain for at least the next 36-48 hours, as a tropical wave pushes north along the Mexican gulf coast. These conditions will probably keep hawk numbers way down; in fact, we're worried about getting completely rained out tomorrow. So, we are thinking there is a great chance that we will hit the million mark this weekend. This being said, we want to see as many hawk watchers out there as possible for this upcoming weekend. Hopefully we'll have some good days, and become the first North American hawk watch (excluding Veracruz, MX) to record one million in a season.

Here are the results from today:

Black Vulture: 3
Turkey Vulture: 1
Osprey: 2
Mississippi Kite: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 68
Cooper's Hawk: 25
Red-shouldered Hawk: 1
Broad-winged Hawk: 144
Swainson's Hawk: 13
White-tailed Hawk: 1
Harris' Hawk: 2
American Kestrel: 19
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Unknown Accipiter: 11

TOTAL 292

The single Peregrine Falcon that was recorded for the day was extremely unusual. It approached low from the southwest and spent a few minutes hunting over the floodplain right below the hill. This immature bird's breast was washed with a very rich, almost bright orange hue over the brown streaking. None of us had seen such a brightly colored immature Peregrine before. In fact it even had us thinking of a certain falcon that starts with the letter "A" before we positively identified it!

The change of seasons, though later than what I'm used to, is becoming evident at the site. This morning a strong, cool northeast wind made it feel autumn-like, even though temperatures still climbed to near 90 in the afternoon. Also, we saw some migrants for the first time that are harbingers of fall, including Wilson's Snipe, Northern Shoveler, and American Wigeon.

Thanks, Scott! I echo Scott wholeheartedly; let's all get out on the hill and see what comes winging over! Swainson's are coming; accips are in good numbers; falcons are in their prime ... the excitement hasn't diminished a bit! And ... don't forget the chocolate!  

October 6, 2004:

Greetings, all! Wet weather all around us today, but hawks still found their way over the site. Dane brings us today's report:

Swainson's : 8
Mississippi Kite : 1
Sharpies : 7
Cooper's : 2
Kestrels : 4
Peregrines : 5
Osprey : 2
Harriers : 1
Total = 30

Highlight : 1 dark-morph Swainson's! Also male Painted Bunting and Brown Thrasher.

Thanks, Dane! Great catch on the dark morph Swainson's! Gotta love those Mississippi kites; they keep trickling through, just to keep us on our toes! Rains are coming in even heavier for Thursday thanks to what will hopefully be our last tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico. This one cooked up around the Bay of Campeche and is moving north/northeast and will be colliding in our area with remnants of the last front that barely pushed through and then backed up over us. Our weather guys promise us a "real" front (yah, heard that before!) next week; one that will actually lower temps noticeably. Should be interesting! In the meantime, we're hoping the models showing good weather for the weekend are true!

Quick correction; I think I goofed on yesterday's report on the date (day total 292); it was for Oct 5, not Oct 4th as the header indicated. Oops! Sorry about that! We're back on track today with the correct dates! Oy! 

October 7, 2004:

Greetings, all! Scott's report for today is short and sweet! One sharpie, then rained out the rest of the day from 10am onward. Squalls are clearing tonight, and it looks like we're finally hitting the dry side of that tropical wave that's been spooling up in the southwestern Gulf all week. Should be a nice day tomorrow! Let's hope it rains raptors rather than raindrops tomorrow!

UPDATE - October 8:

Greetings, all! The watch did better than we thought yesterday. After getting shut down early by rain, the skies apparently cleared enough in the afternoon and Bob and Jo Creglow rolled back on out to the site to see what would brave the waning air currents. Turned out, several more raptors braved the air! Thanks and extra chocolate to them for the extra peek! Here's the final tally, which includes the single sharpie recorded before the rains began:

October 7 updated and final tally:
turkey vulture 11
osprey 1
sharpies 7
coooper's 1
broadies 5
swainson's 4
kestrel 1
peregrine 1
unid accipiter 10
Total: 41   

October 8, 2004:

Joel reports a good day today, as anticipated. Not as good as Hornsby Bend's 6,166 total for the day, including new day records for them for broadies (103), Swainson's (5,428!) and accipiters; turkey vultures clocked in at over 500; wowwww! I echo Jeff ... oh boy, indeed! What an awesome day for that hard working watch near Austin, Texas. Kudos and extra chocolate rations to Jeff Hanson and his amazing folks! If any of you are near Austin, truck on out to Hornsby Bend this weekend and give 'em a hand; looks like there's enough business to go around!

Down south here at Hazel, traffic wasn't too shabby and a welcome relief from the rain days of the week. Here's the total for Oct. 8:

turkey vulture 27
osprey 2
sharpies 103
cooper's 33
red-shouldered 1
broadies 911
swainson's 64
red-tailed 1
kestrel 13
peregrine 2
unid accipiter 10
unid buteo 2
unid raptor 5
Total: 1,174

The weekend is stacking up to be really good. The tropical wave has turned into TD Matthew and appears to be heading for ... *sigh* ... Florida? Surely not. So say the forecasters. As it moves east, moisture is being pulled away from our Coastal Bend area, bringing drier skies and lower humidities. Winds have shifted NNW and that's always good for the watch. Should be a great weekend. 

October 9, 2004: (a red-letter day!!)

Greetings, all!

Did you hear it?! Did you hear the shouts!? The yells!? The screams!? The popping!? The whistling!? Break out the chocolate folks and sit down in a comfy chair if you can stand to sit down! Have we got a tale to tell tonight!

Oh, mama. We did it!

I don't need to say any more, do I? You know exactly what I mean! Yep, we finally hit the official threshold as of today's watch!! Today, under the anticipated west/northwest winds and partly cloudy, dry skies, at precisely 3:48pm, the ONE MILLIONth raptor soared over the Corpus Christi Hawk Watch at Hazel Bazemore County Park!!!!!! YEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAA! Um, sorry about the whoop; I don't mean to sound trite or stereotypical ... heck, I haven't even got a Texas accent (though I'm sure my Jersey and NYC relatives would beg to differ) ... we just gotta let it out, gang, we just gotta let it out! Consider it the sharing of a cheer from our entire gang to all of you! Break out the champagne (ohhh, yes, you bet we did ... for starters, heh!). A mega-round of chocolate for the house tonight!! (Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!)

As if that weren't enough fun, check THIS out! Remember last night's reports from Hornsby Bend, up near Austin (NE from us)? Hey, Jeff, you won't believe it; I think we got your raptors after all! You know, sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn't. We always monitor counts along the Austin-San Antonio corridor every season, among others ... you know ... we like to see what the other spots get and maybe get a heads-up of something that might come our way. And sometimes, we do get similar counts over the watch the next day, when the weather and winds are kind. Today was just one of those wonderfully serendipitous days, I think! Let's get to the numbers, then we'll hit the play by play! Next to the turkey vulture and Swainson's entries, I'll put Hornsby Bend's count from yesterday to the side. I think you'll see why it looks like the winds really did kick in just right and put most of those babies on a flight path right for us, for a change!

black vulture 26
turkey vulture 532 (Hornsby 10/8: 521)
osprey 3
northern harrier 4
sharpies 79
cooper's 42
broadies 2954
swainson's 5628 (Hornsby 10/8: 5428)
red-tailed 1
white-tailed 1
kestrel 26
peregrine 2
unid accipiter 27
unid buteo 5
unid falcon 1
Total: 9,331

An assortment of other raptors for the day were in numbers such that some of Hornsby's other species might well have come over, too. To quote another Austinite (Powers) ... Yeahhhhhh, Baby! It just doesn't get much sweeter than this!

So ... Joel and I were talking tonight, and we agreed ... the excitement for all of us really kicked in starting last night when we saw Hornsby's report! I gotta tell ya; we've been talking about it between ourselves ever since and daring to hope we might get a decent flight today or tomorrow. Thanks a million (no pun intended ... really!) to all the folks who came out to our little watch site, not only this morning to help mojo the hawks in, but to everyone who has ever come out to the watch. Your presence and support is so appreciated! We only wish everyone could have been on the hill today for this particular event! As it happened, I think we all knew it was in the air for this weekend. One of our counters, Dane, was off today ... but in true birder spirit, went birding on his day off at Pollywog Pond, just down the interstate highway east of the watch, even though his mind was also on the watch today. Joel and Scott were on count duty for today, but noted Dane ended up at the watch shortly afterward anyway after reporting seeing kettles coming in over Pollywog! Dane knew! He quickly drove out to the watch site, hit the hill as hawks started coming in, and stayed the rest of the day at the watch and got to see the millionth-plus hawks come overhead!! Now THAT'S dedication to the cause! Hawk watcher's holiday, as we call it! <laugh!> Good on ya, Dane!!

A huge Hazel thanks, too, to Isaac and Patty (hope I spelled your names right) from Austin, who came in today to check out our crazy watch, ended up staying the whole day as the kettles and flights came in one after the other ... and THEN after the millionth hawk sailed on by ... made a run back to town and came back with a bottle of champagne to celebrate the milestone! Awesome!! Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness! (That was the popping sound I referred to up front, by the way!) Timing is everything! You guys picked a great day to come to the watch!

Joel and Scott were, of course, back-counting every hawk as it came through the watch today ... back-counting down to the one millionth. By 3:45pm, they only needed four more hawks to make the million, when Joel says suddenly a group of six came into view! The six broke the plane, migrated on through, and the shouts and cheers erupted!! Joel got so excited he pulled out the referee whistle Bill and I presented to him along with a referee's shirt during the Celebration of Flight's peak period, and he let that sucker wail!! (Apologies to any golfers who might've been trying to tee up at the time; but then, those guys are used to us; just as we're used to their shouts on the tee box behind the watch, heh!). How the whistle came about; we'd been teasing Joel for several years about how he has to play referee during the peak flights in order to keep all flights covered by counters and not have any slip through or have too many people counting the same flights. Really, during some of those peak period flights, Joel rivals the NFL refs in his motions and gyrations, and only needed the shirt and whistle to complete the picture. As of this fall, he's got his gear now, amidst a few groans and "oh lord, what have we done?!" laments as he "practiced" his whistle on us that first day! Ahh, but he cuts quite the figure in that ref shirt! <grin!>

Actually, in retrospect, maybe Joel should have lent his whistle to Vicki today for a little while! When the one millionth hawk sailed on by, everyone was so busy celebrating, shouting (and whistling!), no one kept watching the skies!! No one, that is, but Vicki, thank heavens! Our watch mom had her binos firmly back in place after sharing a grin and a whoop with the gang .. and yep, you know what happened next!! The largest single kettle of Swainson's for the season so far hit the skies over the watch while everyone else was high-fiving and whooping it up! But thanks to Vicki's alert, everyone got to watch the group of 2,250 Swainson's come in, kettle up by the microwave tower (against a nice cloud, no less!) and then sail majestically on southward! Way to go, Vicki!

Whew! Well, that covers the high points. Have you guessed what the millionth hawk is yet? I'll give you a hint; it's one of the twelve species listed for today! Oooooo, I can hear the groans and see the chocolate wrappers being thrown at me for miles! Okay, that was probably not fair. Should I tell you tonight? Or let you think on it overnight? Hmmm, tell you what ... go call in your markers for those of you who placed bets (and you know who you are!!! <laughing!!>) ... and I'll tell you at the end of this post!

Yeahhh, we know, we've had a million-plus hawks over Hazel before, at least twice in the last eight years; maybe even three times; but in terms of the official count during the official 90-day watch period, for various reasons, we never officially tallied up to that magic one million number. It's a very sweet feeling to finally get it officially on the books for all the folks who have put in so much time and effort and devotion to our watch throughout the past twenty five or so years. To John Economidy; Ray Little; Jimmy & Glenn Swartz; Bob and Jo Creglow; Barb and Art Olsen (Art got released from the hospital last week; instead of going home to rest, he hijaaked his own family's car and made Barb and his daughter drive him straight to the watch to get back on the hill as soon as possible!); Phyllis Yochem (bless you for your wonderful weekly birding column with the local paper; it and you are two of our best ambassadors!); Joel and Vicki Simon and our wonderful 2004 fall crew of Dane and Scott and Amanda; to all of our out of town, state and country friends that time their vacations to coincide with the fall watch; to my soulmate, Bill; to the spirits of some of our best who have passed on to higher birding planes - Dr. Carter Whatley who led us onto the world wide web road, Ken Speiss who lovingly maintained feeders and spotted kettle after kettle every day from his west end favorite spot, and Harold Fetter, whose backyard was Hazel Bazemore County Park and whose first love and passion were birds of prey; to all of our sponsors throughout the years and to everyone else I know I'm inadvertently leaving out by name, but include in spirit ... blessings! And congratulations!

Time to finally start working on those tshirts now, I guess! <grin!>

By the way, maybe this is a good time to let you know, that feature video we did of the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch for the 2003 HMANA conference is now available on DVD and VHS. Email me privately for details if you'd like to acquire a copy. Part of the sales price goes to HawkWatch International in support of the hawk watch.

Oh, that one millionth raptor? I put it at the VERY END of the newsgroup posts. If you didn't see it, you didn't scroll all the way down! <grin!> .... it was a Swainson's hawk!   

October 10, 2004:

Greetings, all! Dane reports another good day today. Swainson's remain strong and we even added a new species to the fall season list:

BV's : 17
TV's : 186
Ospreys : 3
Bald Eagle : 1
Harriers : 1
Sharpies : 25
Cooper's : 8
Broad-wings : 207
Swainson's : 3832
Red-tails : 12
Kestrels : 5
Unknown Accips : 6
Unknown Buteo : 1
Unknown Raptors : 4
Total Raptors = 4308

The Eagle was in Juvie plumage! Also 11 (yes, eleven!) dark-morph Swainies. We had 66 species for our "Big-Sit". Highlights were Sandhill Cranes, Greater White-fronted Geese, and the Eagle, of course!

Thanks, Dane! A very decent showing for the Big Sit. Hazel Bazemore seldom disappoints in her diversity, regardless of the time of year.  

October 11, 2004:

Scott rings in with a good day at watch and a personal best on a hard-to-find bird:

We had a great push of Swainson's Hawks around lunchtime, but otherwise, we were pretty quiet the rest of the day. A beautiful "cool" morning led to a sunny afternoon with almost no wind. In fact we did not have a single cloud all day long, making for difficult spotting. Also the lack of wind helped us become the first count in the U.S. to record 1 million biting gnats (no-see-ums)! :)

Broad-winged Hawk: 1
Swainson's Hawk: 1508
Includes:
Dark Morph: 23
Rufous Morph: 4
Red-shouldered Hawk: 1
Turkey Vulture: 124
Black Vulture: 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 25
Cooper's Hawk: 15
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Northern Harrier: 2
Harris' Hawk: 1
Unknown Accipiter: 2
Unknown Buteo: 1

Total: 1684

On a side note: I can now verify that Ringed Kingfishers do in fact exist (J/K). On our daily pre-count drive of the park, Dane and I noticed a big splash on the Nueces river and it was one of these big guys hunting for a meal. He perched cooperatively 50 feet away allowing for great looks. This was a nemesis bird for me; after three previous visits to the Rio Grande valley and two trips to Central America, the bird this morning was my first ever.

Excellent, Scott! The diversity of Hazel never fails to amaze. Year-round, there are always good resident birds in that park, and during migratory periods, the species count really picks up!

Check out those morphs for the Swainie's! The boon continues with north winds. A front (the "real" one we've been promised all season) is due in on Thursday, with promises of lows in the 50's (that's cold down here, folks!). Winds should stay northerly through the week ... yeaaaahhhhhh!!! We might actually get four seasons this year for a change! (You know south Texas weather; we generally have only two seasons, hot and hotter!) Sorry, Scott, a million no-see-ums is actually a little low for the watch; we usually have those little monsters through an entire month. We've actually been lucky this fall. Hey, it's all trade-offs, right? Lotsa no-see-ums this year, but no usual 114-F days this fall ... luck is a matter of definition sometimes. <grin!>  

October 12, 2004:

Greetings, all! Dane has today's report:

TV's : 21
Osprey : 2
Harriers : 1
Sharpies : 13
Cooper's : 8
Broad-winged : 5
Swainson's : 39
Red-tailed : 1
White-tailed : 1
Kestrels : 6
Peregrines : 1
U. Accips : 4
U. Buteos : 6
total = 108

Like Dane says, we need a cold-front! It's due in around 3am Thursday morning ...  

October 13, 2004: 

Greetings, all! Scott has today's tally:

Black Vulture: 13
Turkey Vulture: 190
Osprey: 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 2
Cooper's Hawk: 4
Broad-winged Hawk: 9
Swainson's Hawk: 212
Red-tailed Hawk: 3
Harris' Hawk: 2
American Kestrel: 3
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Unknown Accipiter: 5
Unknown Buteo: 1

TOTAL: 459

We are waiting expectantly to see what the cold front will bring us tomorrow!!

Thanks, Scott. Yup, I'm sitting here watching it come in on the radar as I post tonight. Pretty promising in terms of push. The main front line should be here around 3am. We'll see what's backed up behind it tomorrow! 

October 14, 2004:

Greetings, all! Sorry for the late report. I gritted my teeth and finally opted to install WinXP's Service Pack 2 on my laptop yesterday .... <wince!>. I'd heard so many horror stories about major system crashes with the pack that I put it off for as long as I could. Happily, it went in just fine and everything seems to be working as it should, but of course I had to run everything through its paces and do new system-wide backups, just in case, before continuing onward with regular business. <grin!>

Soooo, on to the watch report! Ahhhh! And just as we'd hoped, a really nice day thanks to the first "real" front of the year finally making it all the way through our area! Scott shows us the numbers in his report:

Today dawned cool, rainy, and windy, so the watch started a half hour late. Around 10:30, we witnessed the front pass over the hill as the sky became 100% clear within a half hour and the north winds strengthened. Most people donned long pants, windbreakers, and even one knit hat!

We ended up having a great movement of Turkey Vultures and Swainson's Hawks around the middle of the day; a nice group of which passed directly overhead for a local middle school biology class that stopped by. And... in true hawk watching fashion, the saying "patience is a virtue" paid off for a couple of our volunteers. After Joel and I closed the watch at 5 p.m., two rarities were spotted by Bob Creglow and Jimmy Swartz while talking to a couple guests. Bald Eagle and Zone-tailed Hawk!!!!! The ZT was low and heading west, so we are hoping it makes an appearance tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed...

Results:

Black Vulture: 8
Turkey Vulture: 5172
Osprey: 3
Bald Eagle: 1
Northern harrier: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 30
Cooper's Hawk: 11
Red-shouldered Hawk: 2
Broad-winged Hawk: 7
Swainson's Hawk: 2890
Red-tailed Hawk: 3
American Kestrel: 16
Merlin: 2
Unknown Accipiter: 9
Unknown Falcon: 2

TOTAL: 8157

Thanks, Scott! Verrrrrry nice! Those vultures have been making good time from up north! Good to see the Swainson's holding strong. Those north/northwest winds are the best winds for bringing them over the watch. We're looking for the trend to continue into the weekend. What a thrill, getting that late eagle and zone-tailed. Let's hope the zonie cooperates and moves on through to make it on the official count Friday!

UPDATE: Scott confirms the zone-tailed hawk was a go for making the Thursday count; got left off the finals by accident. So update your numbers accordingly. <grin!> That brings us to 22 species for the season so far.

October 15, 2004:

Joel brings us Friday's report:

TVs: 648
Harriers: 1
Sharpies: 17
Cooper's: 12
Broad-winged: 15
Swainson's: 73
Red-tailed: 5
Kestrel: 1
Merlin: 1
Unid Accip: 4
Unid. Raptor: 3
Total: 780

Joel says today was one of those killer eye days ... not one single cloud in the sky to help give relief to the constant scanning. We've been really fortunate with the cloud situation this season. Usually we get a lot of those eye-burner days. This season, we've had very few. Joel also reports a really nice group of 410 wood storks through the watch! Excellent!

October 16, 2004:

Dane has Saturday's report:

BV's : 15
TV's : 958
Osprey : 4
Harriers : 2
Sharpies : 7
Cooper's : 5
Broad-winged : 142
Swainson's : 33
Red-tailed : 5
Kestrels : 1
Merlin : 1
Unknown Buteo : 1
Total = 1174

Highlight: 1 dark-morph Broad-winged. Also, a TV with a pink tag on left wing.

Thanks, Dane! Good heads-up on that vulture tag. Whatever group has tagged vultures, hopefully at least one of their folks is on at least one of these forums and will see the report. Or someone who knows someone! Please let them know if you know about that program.

Swainson's and vultures continue to move through the western portion of south Texas as well in good numbers. Bill and I went video hawking today and got some still shots and lots of tape of about 400 Swainson's, along with dozens of caracaras and vultures working sorghum fields being plowed under by area farmers in and around Duval County. Our thrill of the day was catching shots of a rufous morph in the group as he fed near us. An awesome sight, watching Swainson's working a field en masse. We never tire of it!

October 17, 2004:

Dane brings us Sunday's report:

BV's : 58
TV's : 1298
Ospreys : 2
Harriers : 2
Sharpies : 2
Cooper's : 1
Broad-winged : 155
Swainson's : 20
Red-tailed: 4
Harris's Hawks : 2
U. Accips : 3
U. Buteo : 1
Highlight - 1 rufous-morph Red-tailed adult
Total =1548

Thanks, Dane!! 

October 18, 2004:

Scott has today's report:

Black Vulture: 66
Turkey Vulture: 392
Osprey: 1
Northern Harrier: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Red-shouldered Hawk: 1
Broad-winged Hawk: 13
Red-tailed Hawk: 1

TOTAL: 477

Hot, Hot, Hot, today, and we even had a couple new non-raptors for the season: a Royal Tern, and a White-tipped Dove on the PVC feeder!

Thanks, Scott!! Tuesday promises to be another record-breaker for temps, slated for the high 90's with heat indices in the triple digits. Good thing it's almost fall. <grin!> 

October 19, 2004:

Scott has today's report:

Black Vulture: 1
Turkey Vulture: 55
Osprey: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 4
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Broad-winged Hawk: 19
Swainson's Hawk: 13
Red-tailed Hawk: 4
White-tailed Hawk: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 1
TOTAL: 100

Dane and I decided to do a "big day" for the park, trying to find as many species as possible for the day. We hoped this would help us get through these dog days of October heat. We ended up with 88 species, not bad for a day that the birds went silent and inactive around 10 am. We did miss several birds that have been present in the last few days and Bob Creglow and I scoped the cows across the river many times to try and find a Cattle Egret... with no success!

Thanks, Scott!! Another record-breaking heat day, from all reports. Another due again on Wednesday. *sigh!* ... isn't summer about over yet? Good on ya, guys, for the Big Day ... what a great way to pass the time! Hazel is chock full of goodies at any given time of the year. 

October 20, 2004:

Dane has today's report:

BV's : 13
TV's : 284
Osprey : 1
Sharpies : 2
Broad-winged : 19
Swainson's : 1
Red-tailed : 3
Kestrels : 1
Peregrines : 3
U. Accips : 1
U. Buteo : 1
Total = 329

Also numerous Sandhill Cranes and Franklin's Gulls .

Thanks, Dane!! Good to hear the Franklin's Gulls are being seen right on schedule! Hot weather continues; whew! Highs in the upper 90's, heat index around 107 anticipated for Thursday. At least more wind is expected, too; might help keep the skin cooler. Humidity is rife; we've actually been getting fog this week inland; even on coastal areas, right up to the bays. Texas weather!  

October 21, 2004:

Scott has today's report:

Today was a great day with not very impressive numbers, but high diversity and lots of unusual occurrences.

Black Vulture: 8
Turkey Vulture: 180
Osprey: 1
White-tailed Kite: 1
Northern Harrier: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 3
Cooper's Hawk: 4
Broad-winged Hawk: 24
Swainson's Hawk: 6
-Includes 1 Dark Morph
Red-tailed Hawk: 3
Harris' Hawk: 1
Merlin: 3
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Unknown Accipiter: 1
TOTAL: 238

-The Peregrine Falcon was an immature, and an adult Red-tailed hawk decided to try to pick a fight. It swooped at the falcon and the falcon fought back briefly; the whole affair lasting about 15 seconds.

-A flock of over 100 Franklin's Gulls drifted in front of us this morning from east to west!

-The White-tailed Kite (new for the year's watch!!) was quite high, but circled in our view for over five minutes, allowing us to see the immaculate white head and tail, gray and black wing pattern, and almost translucent trailing edge to the wing. Several raptor wingbeats also helped set this bird far apart from just another gull!

-With residents (Kestrel, Red-shouldered Hawk, White-tailed Hawk), we had 16 species of raptors at the park on the day. Dane and I picked up our 17th (Crested Caracara) at Knolle farms after work, west of Corpus.

Thanks, Scott! A nice day all around! 

October 22, 2004:

Scott has today's report:

10/22/04
Broad-winged : 1
Red-tailed : 3
Swainson's : 38
TV's : 541
BV's : 26
Sharpies : 1
Cooper's : 2
Peregrines : 1
Harriers : 1
White-tailed Hawks : 1
Zone-tailed Hawk : 1
Total = 616

Thanks, Scott! Nice catch on the zone-tailed hawk!  

October 23, 2004:

Scott sends along these numbers:

Broad-winged : 14
Red-tailed : 2
Swainson's : 2
TV's : 181
BV's : 227
Sharpies : 6
Cooper's : 1
U. Accip. : 1
Kestrels : 1
Peregrines : 1
Merlin : 1
Harriers : 4
Total = 441

Thanks, Scott! 

October 24, 2004:

Black Vulture: 21
Turkey Vulture: 395
Osprey: 3
Northern Harrier: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 5
Cooper's Hawk: 6
Broad-winged Hawk: 38
Swainson's Hawk: 2
Red-tailed Hawk: 11
Harris' Hawk: 1
American Kestrel: 1
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 3
Unknown Vulture: 9
Unknown Accipiter: 2
TOTAL: 499

October 25, 2004:

Black Vulture: 9
Turkey Vulture: 384
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 4
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Broad-winged Hawk: 3
Swainson's Hawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 3
White-tailed Hawk: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 3
TOTAL: 409

We had one of our neatest Peregrine experiences this morning. Dane noticed a raptor flying low over the grassland (later, we decided it was our local Harrier). A large flock of shorebirds flushed up from the pond area and we realized that there was another raptor present. After a minute or so of looking, Dane found the Peregrine on one of the snags in the field adjacent to the pond. This was a particularly large female peregrine with a relatively white breast compared to others we've seen. Most interesting, though, was that the Peregrine was already munching on a Lesser Yellowlegs. An excellent raptor experience!

Other interesting non-raptors today include: Yellow-breasted Chat, Royal Tern Yesterday: All 7 species of S. Texas doves, plus Gadwall, Ash-throated Flycatcher.

Thanks, Scott! Awesome, on the peregrine kill!!! Waaaaay cool!!

October 26, 2004:

Black Vulture: 11
Turkey Vulture: 63
Northern harrier: 1
Swainson's Hawk: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 1
TOTAL: 77

October 27, 2004:

Turkey Vulture: 144
Osprey: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Broad-winged Hawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 1
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 1
TOTAL: 151

Thanks, Joel! Joel notes it was windy, windy, and did we mention windy? Gusts were over 30mph and kept the additional flights of local raptors low. Two more days of record breaking heat expected before a cold front finally moves through (we hope!) and pushes temps down a notch. 

October 28, 2004:

Black Vulture: 28
Turkey Vulture: 145
White-tailed Kite: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 3
Cooper's Hawk: 2
Broad-winged Hawk: 2
Swainson's Hawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 1
American Kestrel: 1

TOTAL 184

The White-tailed Kite came in very low giving us a great look. What a beautiful bird. Large flights of Pelicans today, along with Anhingas, Pintail, and Franklin's Gulls. Very windy in the afternoon again.

Thanks, Scott! The winds are getting worse every day it seems, the closer we get to that next front (Sunday night). Did you guys catch the "blood moon" last night? Awesome! We had very good viewing conditions down here for a change. Well enough to spend two hours photographing and videotaping it. The harvest moon really showed its stuff with the full lunar eclipse; what a beautiful dark red! I hope everyone got to enjoy it, too. Next one's in about 2-3 years, they say!  

October 29, 2004:

Black Vulture: 86
Turkey Vulture: 475
Osprey: 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 7
Cooper's Hawk: 5
Broad-winged Hawk: 5
Swainson's Hawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 4
American Kestrel: 5
Peregrine Falcon: 2
Unknown Accipiter: 2

TOTAL: 595

We were surprised this morning to see over 100 people at the hawk watch site and uphill from it. Turns out it was a picnic for Coastal Bend College nursing students. So, it was pretty chaotic on the hill and we were "treated" to a soundtrack to our hawk watching today!

Thanks, Scott. A nice surprise, indeed! Let's hope we have some new converts to the cause in turn, <grin!> 

October 30, 2004:

Black Vulture: 2
Turkey Vulture: 537
Osprey: 2
Northern Harrier: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 9
Broad-winged Hawk: 8
Swainson's Hawk: 2
Red-tailed Hawk: 1
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 2
Unknown Accipiter: 1

TOTAL: 566

This morning, the Merlin came in low between the hedge line and us causing 10 or so Inca Doves to explode out of one of the mesquite trees. The bird approached to within 30 feet of me!

Thanks, Scott. One of the nice aspects of our site is the occasional close encounter one might be treated to when least expected. Sharpies have been known to blast out of that same area and spook every dove within fifty yards into an explosion of flight. And of course, we can't forget what's come to be known over the years as "the Creglow incident" when a late-afternoon broadwinged hawk came in too pooped to make a clean approach and nearly knocked Bob Creglow from his hilltop perch up against the fence line one fall. What fun to see a merlin shoot through on the deck! Nothing like an up close and personal view, for both species! 

Black Vulture: 17
Turkey Vulture: 109
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 3
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Swainson's Hawk: 2
American Kestrel: 2

TOTAL: 134

Thanks, Joel! Hope everyone had a safe holiday!