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!?
 

Brian's report:

Slow day today, mostly due to a rainstorm to the south of the side. There were a few birds prior to the
storm.

Broad-winged: 4
Swany: 1
Miss Kite: 35
Unidentified: 1

Total 47

Other birds
Many of the migrants continue to be seen in the park.
Highlights include:
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pyrrhuloxia

Thanks, Brian!

September 02, 2005:

Brian's report:

Today was a rainy day in many areas west, south and east of the site. Most of the day, there was still a gap in the rain clouds for the birds to fly south.

Highlight was the Short-tailed Hawk that kited long enough for us to get a scope on it.

Broad-winged: 10
Swainson's: 2
Miss Kite: 76
Peregrine: 1
Osprey: 1
SHORT-TAILED HAWK: 1

Total: 91

Thanks, Brian! The short-tailed hawk brings us to 17 species so far for the fall watch.

UPDATE: For more information on the short-tailed hawk sighting, please click here for a more detailed report. Many thanks to Joel, Dane and Bob Creglow for allowing us to reproduce the report on this site.

September 03, 2005:

Brian's report:

Slow afternoon, but there is more rain in the area.

Broadies: 6
Swainson's: 5
Miss Kite: 39
Sharpy: 1
Coop: 5
Kestrel: 1 male
Unidentified: 1

Total 58

Most migrants moved out over the night. Highlight birds:

Olive Sparrow
King Rail
Bell's Vireo
Bronzed Cowbird

Thanks, Brian! Wow, September 3rd already; where does the time go?! Kites are making a good show for themselves this season so far.

Correction to report: for Saturday, Sept. 3, take off 2 Swainson's; should be five instead of seven. That brings the day total to 58, not 60. Adjustments have been made below for the season-to-date count. 

September 04, 2005:

Joel's report:

Slow day, really had to work hard for the raptors we found. We finally had a day with more Broad-wings than Mississippi's but only because of a drop-off of one rather than an increase in the other.

Broad-winged Hawk 21
Swainson's Hawk 6
Unidentified Buteo 1
Turkey Vulture 1 (very high in a small stream of other raptors)
Mississippi Kite 17
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Kestrel 1
Osprey 2
Total 50  

September 5, 2005:

Brian's report:

It was a great weekend for me, I got several lifers. Conn War, N. Waterthrush, Mourn, War, Ovenbird, KY, War, Canada War, Red Knot, and Least Flycatcher. Bring on the warblers.

Today start was much different than the other mornings. It was overcast in the morning and for much of the day. The overcast sky and winds made it so that the thermals were not great, so many of the birds could be see soaring in the clouds.

Broadies: 62
RT Hawk: 1
Swainson's: 15
Unidentified Buteo: 2
TV: 1
Black Vulture: 1
Miss Kite: 20
Sharpie: 1
Cooper's: 4
Kestrel: 2
Osprey: 3
Harrier: 1
Total: 113

Other birds
Ani's heard at the site
female Bay-breasted, male Black-and-white, and
Red-eyed Vireo down the road.

Thanks, Brian! (He's going to have a nice number of additions to his life list by the end of watch!) Numbers still are a little low but species spread is good. 19 species now for the watch so far this season, I believe, with the first of the vultures today and yesterday.

That brings the season-to-date to a nice, round 10,000! 

September 6, 2005:

Brian's report:

Rain began around 12:30 today, but we managed to stay open until 2pm. News reached us that more storms were
on the way and we closed down with a good morning behind us.

Broadies: 31
Swainson's: 4
Red-shouldered: 1
Miss Kite: 8
Sharpie: 3
Osprey: 1
Harrier: 1

Total 49

Other birds
female Redstart

Thanks, Brian! Rain continues to move into the area and a tropical wave that formed in the Gulf today promises to dump rain on us by Thursday. While some rain is welcome to our dry yards, a tropical low isn't. Especially in the aftermath of Katrina. Our collective prayers continue to go out to the survivors.

September 7, 2005:

Dane's report:

Broad-winged Hawks : 128
Mississippi Kites : 16
Swainson's Hawks : 3
Red-shouldered Hawks : 1
Peregrines : 1
Osprey : 1
Crested Caracara : 1
Total = 151  

September 8, 2005:

Dane's report:

Mississippi Kites : 5
Broad-winged Hawks : 1
Total = 6

Non-Raptor stuff : Black Tern , American Redstart , Eatern Kingbird , lots of Baltimore Orioles , Roseate Spoonbill.

Thanks, Dane! The tropical wave hanging offshore in the western Gulf has been bringing us rain off and on this week, and more steadily today. Tomorrow is expected to be about the same. The good news is that it's only a wave and is not expected to develop into anything other than tropical rains by the time it all moves onshore. With evacuees from Katrina housed all up and down our coast, that's extra good news. Those folks have had more than enough rain and tropical weather to last them a lifetime. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and do what you can to help.

September 9, 2005: 

Brian's report:

Rain early this morning delayed our start. The sky began to clear late in the afternoon.

Swainson's: 1
Miss Kite: 9
Kestrel: 1
Osprey: 1

Total 12:

September 10, 2005:

Brian's report:

Another slow day. The sky was very cloudy for most of
the day.

Broady: 13
Swainson's: 3
Kestrel: 1
Osprey: 1
Harrier: 1

Total 19

September 11, 2005 (We Will Never Forget):  

Brian's report:

Rained out

September 12, 2005:

Brian's report:

9/12
Rained in the afternoon. Some activity before the
rains.

Broady: 11
Swainson's: 2
Miss Kite: 2
Cooper's: 1
Harrier: 2
White-tailed: 1

Total: 19

September 13, 2005:

Brian's report:

9/13
Finally, a day without rain. The birds were appreciative, because we had a fantastic day. It included a SHORT-TAILED HAWK spotted by Bob Creglow and Dane Ferrell. I was counting a kettle, so I missed it. It was flying with a Swainson's Hawk and three Mississippi Kites, with allowed for a good size comparison, shape, and color.

Broady: 788
Swainson's: 2
Black Vulture: 4
Miss Kite: 76
Cooper's: 2
Kestrel: 1
Peregrine: 3
Opsrey: 2
Harrier: 1
Unidentified: 2
Short-tailed Hawk: 1

Total 882

Thanks, Brian! Whew, the rains have been more hit than miss lately. It's cooled things off, but added more flying critters to the air (you folks remember our Texas-sized mosquitoes, right? They'rrrrre baaaaaack!). Cicadas have also exploded again this year in their most recent cyclical born-again phase. They're serenading the countryside from nearly every tree each day. It's funny the things you miss or don't think about until they're smack in your face again -- kind of an 'out of sight, out of mind' syndrome, I guess. Cicadas have always seemed to be the epitome of summer for me, but of course, they're not around every year. I guess they've been around often enough in the many places I've lived over the years that the sound of them singing just seems like the perfect call to a lazy, hot, still summer day - relaxing at a pond or lying in a hammock in the back yard under a tree, sipping lemonade while the cicadas sing overhead. Of course, it also reminds me of one of my near-bloopers as a television news reporter while doing an on-camera close to a story on the little critters down on the border one year long ago in Laredo, Texas. They'd popped out of the ground then, in a birth cycle that year and were setting up a cacaphony of sound all around me as I closed out a feature story on them in one of the downtown city parks. In my stand up close, I thought I'd be cute and use the Spanish word for them instead of just calling them cicadas. I was practically standing on the Mexican border after all, right? It was almost lunch time and I admit, I was kind of hurrying to get the story done so we could go eat. Imagine my surprise when my camera man nearly fell over laughing and only just missed dropping the camera when I did my wrap. I thought the wrap went rather well! What was going on?! He was in hysterics, and the more he laughed, the faster I realized I must have said something that wasn't quite right, heh! He finally caught his breath long enough to tell me the word I'd chosen to use (pronounced in Tex-Mex as chee-chah-roh-nez) didn't mean 'cicada' ... but rather, it translated to mean those crunchy, delicious pork skins that are a perennial favorite in any border town. The word I wanted to use was pronounced chee-chah-dah! (Spelled the same as the English cicada, but pronounced by Tex-Mex Spanish rules.) Ooooops!! Caught that one just in time! We had a good laugh and I recut the wrap, and ever since then, every time I hear a group of pork skins ... errr .... cicadas ... singing out from the trees, that memory comes to the forefront and sends me into a round of laughter. Cicadas at hawk watches just add to the atmosphere as we sit under the trees on the hill, fanning the heat and mosquitoes away (okay, using a baseball bat, some days, to ward off those suckers). For me, cicadas always bring a grin to my face, reminding me to not be too overconfident on any identifications ... because it just might sneak back up on ya!  

September 14, 2005:

Brian's report:

Another clear day, with sprits of birds and lulls of none. We had our first Zone-tailed Hawk today, spotted and IDed by Dane Ferrell. The SHORT-TAILED HAWK was around again today. We presume it to be the same bird that was seen yesterday.

Broady: 77
Swainson's: 11
Miss Kite: 6
Coop: 3
Peregrine: 1
Harrier: 1
Zone-tailed: 1
Unidentified: 1
Total 104

Thanks, Brian. We're slowly clearing from the rain, though another few showers did pop up. Probably be the pattern the rest of the week.

Hummingbirds are coming in by the dozens this week. The HummerBird Festival in Rockport (just up coast from us) should be bang-on for their home and garden bus tours with hundreds of hummers queuing up to feeders.

I'm glad to see that short-tailed hanging around the watch. For folks who have never gotten good (any) looks at a short-tailed, it's a rare opportunity to get some time in the scope with it.

Zone-tailed hawks are getting to be regulars on the fall count. Their range continues a slow expansion eastward. It's wonderful to have more than accidental encounters with them in our area!

The storms all along the eastern seaboard seem to be keeping migration as sluggish there as it's been down here with the tropical waves washing onshore every few days. Yet another wave is percolating in the Yucatan. Hopefully, it won't develop into much more than more squalls. Our Gulf Coast Katrina survivors are getting their feet under them and joining up with other family members. About half of the sheltering throughout the Coastal Bend have now transitioned out. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all of them.

Note: Cooper's corrected to 3 instead of 6. 

September 15, 2005:

Brian's report:

Another slow day, most the birds came in only during a 2-3 hour time span. We did have the SHORT-TAILED HAWK
once again today. Morning seems to be when we see it the most. It seems as if the birds are clogged somewhere along the flyway. Hopefully the skies will soon open up and pour out raptors.

Broady: 20
Red-tailed: 1
Swainson's: 1
TV: 7
Black V: 12
Miss Kite: 5
Sharpie: 1
Kestrel: 2
Osprey: 1
Harrier: 1

Total 51

Thanks, Brian! A quick note; yesterday we listed 6 Cooper's. Change that to 3.  

September 16, 2005 (Diez y Seis):

Brian's report:

We had close to 1000 Dickcissels fly over the watch today.

Broadies: 399
Red-tailed: 3
Black V: 5
Miss Kite: 73
Kestrel: 1
Peregrine: 1
Osprey: 1
total 483

September 17, 2005:

Brian's report:

Broadies: 593
Red-tailed: 1
Swainson's: 1
Miss Kite: 39
Sharpie: 1
Peregrine: 6
Osprey: 3
Total 644

other birds 6/17
10 Groove-billed Ani
Blue-headed Vireo

Warblers: Wilson's, Black-and-white, Black-throated Green, Chat, Yellow, Nashville, N. Waterthrush, Mourning, Tennessee, Orange-crowned, Canada

Another 500 dickcissels flew through the watch this morning. Warblers were also moving a lot this morning. We had 11 species in the park. Zone-tailed Hawk was the bird of the day. (age to be posted later). It was seen earlier in the day before giving us a several minute ordeal very low. It was spotted around 4:15 and dove on a TV, giving us a nice comparison in size, shape, and coloration.

Now, for the Short-tail update. The hawk was not seen yesterday, but twice today. For the past week, sightings have always been in the east, and rather far. This has lead to speculation as to where the hawk is roosting, the best possibility being Pollywog Ponds. Dane Ferrell and Charlie Lyon when to Pollywog where
they flushed the Short-tailed Hawk. It was flushed 100 meters from the entrance north of the stream, where there is a small pond dug out. No pictures have yet been taken of this light morph hawk due to it being too far out when it is seen at the site.

Something tells me Pollywog will be packed for the next couple days.

Thanks, Brian! Great field notes! Things are starting to heat up (no pun intended, triple-digit temps notwithstanding!). The backlog of raptors appears to finally be easing southward. Today, SMRR/Lake Erie Metropark racked in 27,578 broadwinged hawks alone. Holiday Beach logged 3,785 broadies today. Both watches had high sharpie passages for the day, too. Based on other northern and eastern watch reports, the massive wave of storm-held raptors that we all know are coming (<grin!>) should be pushing through in the next day or so, which will put them across our watch in about seven days or so. Weather pending, of course. Mother Nature will always have the last say on flight itineraries. Keep your eyes up, your clickers oiled and your chocolate cold. Speaking of chocolate, before I go tonight, let me also extend a hearty CC Hawk Watch chocolate welcome to noted raptor author Clay Sutton and his wife, Pat. They are in town, participating in the Rockport HummerBird Festival this weekend just up coast. Clay gave a great presentation today on identifying and locating raptors in Texas (and in general). He'll be on the hill at Hazel tomorrow. Be sure to stop by and say hi and let him know how much we appreciate his books and photos! 

September 18, 2005: 

Brian's report:

9/18
Today was a good day, many locals and migrants up. More visitors came to the site from the pelagic trip and the hummingbird festival.

Broady: 3558
Red-tailed: 3
Swainson's: 14
Red-shouldered: 1
Unidentified Buteo: 2
Black V: 1
Miss Kite: 41
Swallow-tailed Kite: 1
Sharpie: 4
Unidentified Accip: 1
Kestrel: 3
Peregrine: 6
Osprey: 15
Merlin: 1
Zone-tailed: 1
White-tailed Kite: 2
Total 3654

Thanks, Brian! Some notes from Brian - add one Swainson's to the 9/16 count and one zone-tailed to the 9/17 count. Totals are updated below.

The broadies are starting to move through. Spreadsheets are fun things. For several years, I've been marking the passage days on my spreadsheets whenever we get the first "big" group coming through, and when we get subsequent large flights. September 18th was bang on for the first four-digit count of broadies, as compared to last year. Same day, same bat time, same bat channel? Well, I don't know about the time and channel, <grin!>, but the date was definitely the same, and the trend has been within one or two days if not bang on the same date each year for the past several years. Gotta love it

Wow, a 14-species day. Not bad for an intro into the peak passage period that kicks off this week, weather permitting.

We're keeping a sharp weather eye to our east. Tropical Storm Rita has cooked up in the Caribbean and from the looks of the current models, she's slated to make a Gulf entry sometime on Tuesday, heading towards Texas for a possible landfall this weekend. I hate to even write about it. If we've ever needed a strong cold front for the weekend, this is the time to start praying for one.

September 19, 2005:

Joel's report:

braodwinged: 7,214
Swainson 3
turkey vulture 4
Miss kite 81
sharpie 1
Cooper's 4
Am kestrel 5
Peregrine 4
osprey 8
N. harrier 7
unk accip 1
TOTAL: 7,337

Thanks, Joel! A really good day today!! Even with the threat of soon-to-be Hurricane Rita looming, water bottles and cases of soda (soda?!) already disappearing from local supermarkets by entire shelves at a time; bread, too (my local HEB store was already cleared of those commodities and more when I stopped by late tonight) ... you just have to smile at the thought of those hard-working hawks winging their way southward, trying to beat the weather. I see flights are continuing to eke through from the northern and northeastern sites. Any day now, guys, any day now ...  

September 20, 2005:

Joel's report:

Another good day! Best event was the lift-off of 760 broadies this morning, low over the park.

broadwinged 7595
Swainson 6
red-tailed 2
red-shouldered 2
turkey vulture 1
Miss kite 2
sharpie 1
Cooper's 4
Am kestrel 4
Peregrine 3
osprey 4
N. harrier 4
unk accip 1
unk raptor 2
TOTAL: 7631

Thanks, Joel! Another good warm up day, all right!

At the moment, we're overrun with reports of Hurricane Rita heading our way, due to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday morning somewhere along the central/upper Texas coast. Hurricanes being what they are and doing what they do, it's impossible to predict exactly where it's going to come in. The models seem to be stable and true so far, but after Katrina's little sideways dance with the devil at the last minute, we're not taking any chances down here and are battening down the hatches and steeling ourselves for a possible rain out this weekend due to the hurricane. As well as possible evacuation from the area, period. Which will likely affect the upcoming Celebration of Flight this weekend, too. Joel will make an announcement about it tomorrow as to whether it's a go or not. I'll post a special message to everyone to keep you updated when he does. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you're planning a trip to the area this weekend. What a deal.

One quick correction before I go pack up more stuff: I mis-wrote the total for the broadies yesterday. Should have read "7219" instead of "7214". Sorry; my fingers got crossed! The total of 7337 is correct. Thanks to Mike for catching it!! (An extra ration of chocolate for you, my lad!)

September 21, 2005:

Joel's report:

Opened the watch an hour late due to heavy fog. Small lift-off of 49 broadies just before ten, small but diverse numbers throughout the day until the last two hours. The best hour was between four and five with the largest single kettle of the season of 1034 and a fun kettle of mixed broadies and Mississippi's of 290. Broke the all time heat record with a sweltering 99 degrees!!!

Broad-winged Hawk 2026
Swainson's Hawk 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Mississippi Kite 39
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6
Cooper's Hawk 31
Amer. Kestrel 13
Peregrine Falcon 3
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 3
Merlin 1
Crested Caracara 2
Harris' Hawk 1
White-tailed Hawk 1
Unidentified Accipiter 8
Total- 2141

Thanks, Joel! Wow, what a day. In between being glued to weather reports in any way we could get them, running around securing businesses and homes and stocking up on all those little "dadgummit, I forgot that!" items (most of which were already off the shelves anyway by now!) ... it's been one helluva week down here! Never fear, once the weather clears, as noted, we should all have some bodacious flights once the raptors and rest of the migrants get the green light from Mother Nature to come on down. We're packing and getting ready to bug out, so I'll keep this short (yeah, I hear the cheers! <grin!>)! Anyone still in the path, get out. Don't even think about staying. It's not worth it. If you're in Galveston, GET OUT! PERIOD! Safe than sorry, remember? You aren't going to survive a surge from a direct hit. Katrina? 'Nuff said. Keep that chocolate stock up for us, everyone else. <grin!> We'll catch up on our rations as soon as we get settled. Be safe, everyone.

September 22, 2005: 

Joel's report:

Thinking we would open the watch for a few hours while we waited for the 11:00 am update on Rita we found Hazel Bazemore Park closed. So we opened it at my home only a half mile northeast of the watch. The nine brave souls witnessed a wonderful upclose liftoff of a little over a thousand broadies. Then between 10 and 11 we counted slightly over 6,000 more.

The storm update brought good news (for us that is) that Corpus was no longer under a hurricane warning. We decided to stay. At 12:30 someone called to tell us that Hazel had reopened so we move the watch back to the park.

During the next three hours we had another 3,000 and then between 4 and 5 the floodgates opened with a one hour total of 33,765. There will be a great liftoff tomorrow morning west of the site around County Road 73 off FM 624.

Very good diversity including two adult Bald Eagles! We even had five dark morph broadies. Yes, it was hot but the north winds made it tolerable. Many thanks to Libby and Brock Huffman for the offer of refuge for the entire crew at their home in San Antonio even thought we ended up not leaving.

The watch will be open tomorrow in what promises to be an interesting day.

Broad-winged Hawk 44,546 (including 5 dark morph)
Swainson's Hawk 8
Mississippi Kite 23
Sharp-shinned Hawk 8
Cooper's Hawk 19
American Kestrel 8
Peregrine Falcon 4
Osprey 4
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle 2
Unidentified Accipiter 1
Unidentified Falcon 1
Total- 44,626

Thanks, Joel! Wow! What can you say to that! Who knew that a watch would even be possible this date, on the heels of mandatory evacuation for our entire coastal bend area the night before as Hurricane Rita approached? Kudos to the entire crew and guests who were at the right place at the right time! The only other thing I can add is that I hope Friday's report is even better and that even more hawks dodged the weather to get south before the Rita hits. One side note; Sept 22 is historically one of the early "big" days. Indicates to me that the storms have not really had as much of an effect this season other than to bunch them up more than normal. They're appearing to come through on schedule this year so far.

September 23, 2005:

Joel's report:

Another nice liftoff this morning of 1022 Broad-winged Hawks. The days was very hot and very windy. The rest of the day came in dribs and drabs. Best bird of the day was a Zone-tailed Hawk moving south with other raptors.

Broad-winged Hawk 1345
Swainson's Hawk 1
Mississippi Kite 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 4
Cooper's Hawk 8
American Kestrel 7
Peregrine Falcon 1
Osprey 5
Zone-tailed Hawk 1
Unidentified Raptor 1
Total 1378

Thanks, Joel! Well, the watch lucked out. Hurricane effects in the Corpus area are minimal, though the flights that haven't beaten the weather are likely going to experience delays until the aftermath passes through the eastern US. Every day now for at least the next week is going to be fun to watch and count!

One correction for yesterday; add an unidentified raptor to the count. Brings the total to 44,626. (You bet, every bird is important!) 

September 24, 2005:

Joel's report:

I'm pooped, burnt out and just hope I can make it just one more day. Probably the single hardest day ever at the watch. Below is today's report

Another good liftoff this morning with 1662 hawks between 9 and 10. Good turn out considering the Celebration had been canceled with 45 to 50 folks aweing the close broadies. Lots of close residents and 200 countable migrants in the second hour........then precious little after that.

For the fourth straight day we set record high temperatures for Corpus hitting 105 degrees today!!!!!!! And yes I feft every single degree. Only 21 hawks in the next five hours, talk about eye strain. Hope tomorrow will be better. The weather man says another record high day and that's OK as long as we have hawks, after all this is the "peak".

Broad-winged Hawk 1884
Swainson's Hawk 3
Mississippi Kite 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Cooper's Hawk 15
American Kestrel 1
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 3
Unidentified Buteo 1
Unidentified Accipiter 3
Total 1918

Thanks, Joel! Whew, 105 today. Granted, this is the time of year we regularly hit triple digits in the ambient air temp, but I guess we were hoping to get a little cooling action this weekend. Rita's moving inland and setting up her blockade of storms until she rains out, so those incoming raptors will be concentrating more and more. Doesn't look like the northern and eastern watches have had their usual peak passage bulk flights yet, either. Any day now ..... <grin!>. One thing that stands out on my charts is the lower than usual number of red-tails. Usually we have twice this many by this period of the watch. Interesting ...  

September 25, 2005: 

Brian's report:

Another hot day at the site, with the temperature gauge reading 105*F in the shade. No lift off this morning, and slow all day. The only reason we got more than 50 birds was due to a kettle of 270 late in the day.

Broadies: 298
Swainson's: 3
Miss Kite: 4
Kestrel: 2
Peregrine: 2
Osprey: 6
Harrier: 2 (one adult male, the first to my knowledge)

Total 317

The Short-tailed flew directly over the site today, and was last seen with a WT Hawk and a Miss Kite

Thanks, Brian! Another scorcher, all right and more to come this week. Typical weather for this time of year. We didn't get any heat relief or rain out of Rita, but we didn't get the storm, either, so we can't really complain.

Anyone with any word from Smith Point, please let us know. We're hoping they weren't too badly damaged in the storm, and can get out to the site again soon, if trees and water allow.  

September 26, 2005:

Joel's report:

Wow, it really cooled off today with the temp hitting only 99 degrees. Still, it was the sixth straight day of record highs. The first two and a half hours produced five migrating raptors, a migraine headache, strained eyes, nary a cloud in sight, and hundreds of bees.

Between one and two we had 15,036 and a good diversity for the day. We had the Short-tailed Hawk again (remember this hawk showed up for the first time on Sept. 2). The fifteen or so folks at the watch have really paid their dues and deserve to see some big numbers in the next few days.

With a front scheduled in on Thursday it could great on Friday and Saturday.

Broad-winged Hawk 18247 (Including 3 dark-morphs)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Swainson's Hawk 2 (one of which was a dark-morph)
Turkey Vulture 11
Black Vulture 2
Mississippi Kite 15
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3
Cooper's Hawk 8
American Kestrel 4
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 2
Harris' Hawk 3
Zone-tailed Hawk 1
Unidentified Buteo 1
Total- 18,302

Wow, Joel, awesome! Yep ... it's starting! We're now tickling the edge of 100,000 at the stepping off point for the push this week. Good to see a red-tail on the count; they've been noticeably missing lately. Interesting. And we're seeing the expected western irruption, too; very cool. That front should bring down some good numbers and dark morphs if the weather patterns hold.

I heard from John Arvin yesterday. Smith Point is still inaccessible and they hope to be able to get in later this week. I hope they can get back and up and running before the push starts. What a deal! Wacked out season, to be sure. Three more waves appeared on the satellite yesterday. Enough is too much, already; we're all ready for the hurricane season to be over.   

September 27, 2005:

Joel's report:

Another day of record heat and precious few clouds after 10:00 AM. This was probably the hardest day ever with tired eyes having to find mostly small kettles in clear skies. Help is on the way with a front coming in late Thursday, this weekend will be a barn burner.

Broad-winged Hawk 22471 (including 19 dark-morph)
Swainson's Hawk 19 (including 1 dark-morph and one rufous morph)
Turkey Vulture 32
Mississippi Kite 23
Sharp-shinned Hawk 9
Cooper's Hawk 18
American Kestrel 23
Peregrine Falcon 8
Osprey 16
Northern Harrier 3
Zone-tailed Hawk 1
Ferruginous Hawk 1 (first of the season)
Unidentified Accipiter 1
Unidentified Raptor 1
Total 22,626

Thanks, Joel. First off, my apologies for forgetting to change the day of the week for the report for the 26th. I inadvertently left it set to Sunday. (brain surge!) We should be caught up to the proper day of the week now.

Secondly, wow! Another red-letter day! As anticipated, the push is on. As Joel notes, temps are slated to drop possibly up to ten degrees on Thursday, so look for that to be the bulldozer day, leading into what we anticipate will be a killer weekend. Supplies in the Coastal Bend have been pretty much replenished since the run on stores for Hurricane Rita, so you shouldn't have trouble finding chocolate. <grin!> Gas, too, is fine; in good supply if a little high in price since Rita (about $2.79-$2.89 a gallon on average).

And, for the Native American afficionados who missed this season's blessing ceremony (cancelled due to Rita, along with the entire Celebration of Flight festival last weekend), check out the grand opening of Cherokee Accents' new digs practically right across the street from the entry road to the park. Coming from the park, turn right at the light (CR69 at FM624) and you'll see it across 624 in a new shopping strip, along with some new eateries that will definitely make hawk watching a lot easier for folks who don't pack in their own food. Diane and Bill Larew have something for everyone in Native art and gifts. Be sure to also come to their Native American Heritage Festival in October! Check them out at http://www.cherokeeaccents.com/.

September 28, 2005:

Joel's report:

Same song, seventh verse. Another record setting day of heat and practically zero clouds. This day one year ago we had our largest day ever with a little over 520,000. At this point in the season, we are a whooping 727,000 behind last year's record setting one million raptor pace. That leaves three options, either they went west of Hazel, they just couldn't be seen because they were too high in the cloudless skies to find, or.....they are late because of all the unusual weather. I believe in option three. With the first front of the season due in tomorrow, the next three to four days could produce really large numbers!!!!!!!

The bird of the day was Merlin, first one low and close, followed by several more.

Broad-winged Hawk 8155 (including 29 dark morphs)
Swainson's Hawk 37
Turkey Vulture 33
Black Vulture 2
Mississippi Kite 31
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Cooper's Hawk 19
American Kestrel 12
Peregrine Falcon 13
Merlin 7
Osprey 30
Northern Harrier 12
Unidentified Buteo 4
Unidentified Accipiter 3
Unidentified Raptor 1
Total- 8364

Thanks, Joel! Let's see what transpires today. I also anticipate good flights, hopefully over the watch where they can be logged in! Keep that chocolate cold and the binos up! 

September 29, 2005: 

As Joel noted tonight, we had a few more hawks today than we have been having lately. After eight days of record breaking heat, the hill finally got some relief today with the passage of a cool front that started as a cold front barreling southward that ended as a fizzled out front of some kind that totally wimped out on us but has now decided to dump rain and thunder on my house as I write tonight's report. The thermometer dropped a whopping two whole degrees during the day, says Joel ... whoo-hoo, a real doozie of a front! <laugh!> Not! But hey, we'll take any relief we can get and at least the ambient air temp did drop from three digits to only two today (from 101 to 98).

Here's the hawk play by play from Joel's sun and haze abused sore eyes:

The first three hours were sloooooooow! Only racked up 39 birds for most of the morning.

For the 12 to 1 hour, business picked up a bit, with 13,000 broadies finally finding their way over the park.

For the 1 to 2 hour, another 34,000 winged over.

For the 2 to 3 hour, the flights slowed; only 561 recorded for the hour but the winds also shifted during this time from southeast to north for a short time, then settling back down by the next hour and through the rest of the day coming out of the east. The take may have been light for the hour, but the species counts were remarkable. For instance, 40 sharpies; 29 Cooper's, 28 kestrels and 7 peregrines ... all just in that hour block!

For the 3 to 4 hour, business once again picked up as raptors commuted their way across the watch zone. A total of 8,000 broadies clocked in for the period.

For the 4 to 5 hour, rush hour commenced and the numbers picked up -- 10,000 broadies passed the gate.

For the 5 to 6 hour, the rush was over; only 400 through, and no perceived set downs, though by morning, it's possible some of these guys might've made the turn-around and parked amongst the river valley trees for the night.

Broadwinged hawk 65,272 (10 dark morphs)
Swainson's hawk 16 (1 dark morph)
turkey vulture 26
Mississippi kite 21
sharpie 108
Cooper's 114
kestrel 52
peregrine 21
merlin 5
osprey 7
northern harrier 14
unidentified buteo 2
unidentified accipiter 18
unidentified falcon 1
unidentified raptor 1
TOTAL: 65,678

Awesome! As I told Joel ... a good start! <grin!>

Emails have been flying today as fast as I can type with folks from all over. The one common thread about most of the observations shared today is a continued lack of a real push so far at any of the watches. Thanks to Laurie in Duluth, John in Ontario, Michael in Idaho, Mark in Nebraska and David in Veracruz, among others, for input. Mark notes Swainson's are on the move from our west; we might get a bumper crop of those babies coming through the Corpus watch this season, too, if the western irruption holds true for another week or two. David in Veracruz has had a couple good five figure flights, but nothing more than one would expect for early flights prior to their push. No word out of the other Veracruz sites yet; they're keeping mum. No news, good news? We don't think it's too late at all to enjoy the wall to wall, horizon to horizon flights on the northern end of the continent. Rather, that the weather has held off the hawks for so long from the eastern and northern routes that it's still very likely we'll be seeing some large flights over the next few days and into the weekend, as long as the routes take them over a watch site. It's equally likely a few miles' swing could take them out of observational air space. But, you know us; we choose to remain positive until we have to admit defeat, <laugh!>. Hey, at the very least, we're definitely seeing a western irruption (bonzos on the dark morph broadies; this is a bumper season for those guys for the Corpus watch!) Tomorrow is the day to eyeball, and Saturday, too.

Rooms are plentiful down here. Gas prices are rising yet again tonight around the Coastal Bend. Well, at least around the Corpus part of it. As of about 8pm tonight, we're back to $3.00 per gallon (excuse me, $2.99 and 9/10ths a gallon). Chocolate prices remain stable, however, and we're assured of good stocks of dark, milk and white well throughout the watch duration. Ice supplies remain good, too, even after Rita's shelf-clearing expeditions of last week. So come on out to the nearest watch to you ... support the efforts, munch that chocolate to bring the hawks overhead, and let's see what we can tally up over the next couple days!

Oh, and less I be remiss, let me apologize once again. This time, I accidentally omitted the count in the subject line for yesterday's report. Just plain forgot to insert it after I wiped the prior day's from the template. Brain surges abound this week. <grin!>

And, Joel notes the tallies for 9/27 and 9/28 have been adjusted after audits of the count sheets. Add 3 northern harriers to 9/27 and take away 30 broadies for 9/28. Those adjustments have been made in the year to dates below. 

September 30, 2005:

Tara's report:

Joel let me be the one to e-mail you all the count info today (which means I was the lucky person who got to balance the sheets today! :))

Anyway, the site today was relatively exciting. The front really did make it to CC and we did NOT have a record high temperature today (how often does 94 feel cool?? :))We also had an opportunity to see 2 raptors close up. One was our resident Cooper's Hawk who tried to take out one of the very vocal Mockingbirds in a tree right above everyone's head. Needless to say, the Mockingbird escaped, screaming at the Coop the whole time.

Our other bird at the site was Rex, a Peregrine Falcon belonging to Robert Benson from Texas A&M-CC who brought along the portable radar. Rex is quite a handsome bird as he is just getting in his adult feathers--and since he also kept the Green Jays in hiding all day!! The radar equipment was handy to see how far out we were detecting birds--it's amazing how far away they look, even though the farthest kettle we detected was only about 2.7 miles out. I'm pretty sure that the radar trailer will also be at the site tomorrow... (?)

Anyway, the birds--yes, it was our highest count day this year for as much as that's worth--it is still peak time, right?? :)

Broad-winged Hawk 71998
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Swainson's Hawk 9
Red-Shouldered Hawk 1
Turkey Vulture 12
Black Vulture 8
Mississippi Kite 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk 38
Cooper's Hawk 76
American Kestrel 15
Peregrine Falcon 14
Merlin 2
Osprey 20
Northern Harrier 5
Harris's Hawk 1
Zone-tailed Hawk 1
Unidentified Buteo 1
Unidentified Accipiter 5
Unidentified Raptor 1
Total- 72223

After the first couple of hours the birds were pretty consistent and we were getting sizable kettles and streams in the range of 9,500-18,000 birds per hour, so things were entertaining for awhile!!

Thanks, Tara! Great report! And a really great day! You betcha, we're in the peak period now! Let's hope that tradition and flight paths hold out, and the hawks find their way over the watch site despite interference along the route from all that tropical weather. I can't wait to see what the weekend will bring! (Continuing cooler weather would be a good start!).

I was watching radar today from my lab as well, and it's gratifying to find out that those signatures I saw were not just anomalies ... the hawks really did go over the park today! Too cool!

Well, before going any further, let me make this the, what, third day in a row? Time to apologize again, and this time, I really outdid myself!! Seems in my excitement over yesterday's numbers, I kind of forgot to include the daily count by species in the report! (Thanks, Mike!) Geez, I still don't know how I did that, but there you go. It's the Mystery of the Disappearing Numbers case! (I've been reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries lately, can you tell?) At any rate, let me redeem myself and the watch and reproduce the numbers here, for those following the species by day. Third time's a charm, right? So I should be all straightened out by tomorrow's report (lord, let's hope!!). <grin!> Here's the belated numbers for 9/29,and as it happens, Joel emailed a correction for the tally this morning, so add one unidentified falcon, and that brings the total for 9/29 to 65,678:

Word continues to come from up north about good Swainson's flights. I sure hope the bulk of them find their way over our watch site this season. Some years are gangbusters; other years, we just get a few thousand. With the western irruption in progress, I'm banking on a good passage for this season!   

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