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!?
 

November 1, 2005:

Brian's report:

Today was a little better. We had spurts of activity. Most excitement was a group of 8 vultures, 1 PRAIRIE, and 1 FERRUG.

RT Hawk: 3
TV:: 137
Black V: 5
Sharpie: 2
Coop: 2
Kestrel: 1
Prairie Falcon: 1
Ferruginous Hawk: 1
Harris': 1

Total 153

Thanks, Brian! 

November 02, 2005:

Dane's report:

Swainson's Hawk : 9
Turkey Vulture : 145
Black Vulture : 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk : 2
Cooper's Hawk : 7
Osprey : 1
Northern Harrier : 2
Crested Caracara : 2
White-tailed Hawk : 2
Merlin : 1
Total = 176

Highlights included 2 rufous-morph Swainson's; an incredible look at a sub-adult White-tailed Hawk; and the Merlin was a gorgeous Prairie male.

Brian may have mentioned this following item already - but just in case he did not: this past Saturday (10/29/05), Libby Huffman (awesome homemade Italian wedding soup and excellent breads), and Jo Creglow (delicious cheeses, fruits, and cake); combined to feed all of us at the Hawkwatch site ... A huge THANK YOU to both of these incredible Ladies ... Also - Bob and Jo treated Tara, Brian, Jimmy and myself to supper at Cici's Mexican Restaurant last night - another Big Thank You - and we are getting spoiled !!

Thanks, Dane! 

November 03, 2005:

Dane's report:

Turkey Vulture : 51
Sharp-shinned Hawk : 1
Total = 52

Also - 2 Least Grebes on the Duck pond (found by Tara).

It has occurred to me that a grievous oversight concerning gratitude may have happened in regards to the Hawkwatch at Hazel: Vicki and Joel Simon have fed the observers and our excellent Volunteers many times this season; and one meal early in the Season deserves special mention: for the entire crew and many of the Volunteers, Vicki barbecued sausage and ribs, along with homemade potato salad, beans, and all the other fixins ... Awesome , awesome meal ... the ribs were the best this Florida boy has ever had (cooked over mesquite .... yummy!)... Anyway, a belated but heartfelt thanx - speaking for all of us lucky enough to have shared in this feast .... THANK YOU, Vicki and Joel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Thank You also , Patty ....

Thanks, Dane! Awww, listen, you guys deserve every bit of thanks and appreciation as well, for sitting out on that hill day after day under sometimes impossible viewing conditions. Dane's done an awesome job in his first year as coordinator, and we all hope and pray it's the first of many to come! Hard to believe end of watch is fast approaching (unless you've been on that hill every day under sometimes impossible viewing conditions, <grin!>)!

Let me do some paperwork before we close this report. My eyes and brain hiccuped in concert several times last night and missed some red-tailed hawks on my totals. I even proofed my totals (good thing, but they still came out wrong, <laugh!>). The red-tails got listed in Dane's report; just got missed on my spreadsheet, so yesterday's count was four low by my fault. When we have a difference in count I use my spreadsheet's total until the difference in numbers can be resolved. Unfortunately, my spreadsheet was the one in error this time, <laugh!>! Yesterday's total was 180; the year-to-date recap has also been updated. Thanks, Dane, and sorry about the confusion to everyone else. 

November 04, 2005:

Dane's report:

Turkey Vulture : 182
Black Vulture : 11
Swainson's Hawk : 2
Broad-winged Hawk : 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk : 1
Total = 197

Thanks, Dane! Interestingly, today was a "high" day last year for turkey vultures, too. High in terms of higher than what normally comes through that time of the season, that is.

November 05, 2005:

Dane's report:

Turkey Vulture : 33

Total = 33

Can we count 4 bummed out Hawkwatchers ? Still a beautiful day at Hazel ...

Thanks, Dane! Those low days are tougher to take, especially when the weather's been so beautiful. But typically of south Texas, the temps are creeping up a little more each day. Time for another front, <grin!>!

November 6, 2005:

Dane's report:

Turkey Vulture : 37
Sharp-shinned Hawk : 1
White-tailed Kite : 1
Total = 39

Thanks, Dane! I can't believe I got a better sighting than the hawk watch this weekend but check this out ... we have a whooping crane in Corpus Christi, and it's only about half a mile from our house, no less! Wowsa! You really do never know just what you're gonna find at any given time around here!! I photographed it on Friday and Saturday, but didn't see it today. Now, if I can only find a way to view it from our house ... that would be a fun entry for our house list. <grin!> Details are being posted tonight to the TexBirds newsgroup.

November 7, 2005:

Brian's report:

We're noticing a lack of ducks and geese flying over today. There were only a few groups of White-fronted.

RT Hawk: 2
TV: 112
Black: 12
Sharpie: 3
WT Hawk: 4
Harris': 1
Peregrine: 1
Total 135

Thanks, Brian!  

November 8, 2005: 

Brian's report:

We had 3 mystery plovers fly over the site yesterday. After consulting books and Clay Taylor and Joel, I've
determined they were most likely Mountain Plovers. The shape and contrasting light and dark matches them best. Little bits of rain today, but nothing lasting more than 5 mins.

RT Hawk 5
Coop 5
TV 52
Black V 71
Total 133

Thanks, Brian!

November 9, 2005:

Brian's report:

We are finally having Black Vultures moving.

RT Hawk: 6 (one was a juv Krider's)
Swainson's: 2
TV: 91
Black V: 126
Coop: 1
Peregrine: 1
Osprey: 1
Harrier: 1
Caracara: 1

Total 230

other birds
Northern Flicker (RS form) 

November 10, 2005:

Brian's report:

This afternoon didn't seem like it was one of the last days of the season. We had a very diverse afternoon
in with TV's. We had other good non-raptors today. The butter-butts numbers have picked up. Several flocks of White-fronted Geese (one flock had a Ross' Goose). American Pipits and Eastern Bluebirds were in the area today also.

RT Hawk 9, plus one juv Krider's
Swainson's 4
RS Hawk 2
TV 348
Black 12
Sharpie 5
Coop 9
Unidentified Accip 2
Harrier 9
Harris' 2

Total 403

TTYL
Brian

Thanks, Brian! It's hard to believe we're nearly at watch end again. Yeah, yeah, I know ... I say that near every watch end, <laugh!>! Geese and ducks are moving freely throughout the area and peregrines are settling into their winter territories. Even my winter merlin finally showed up on Mustang Island two days ago. I was starting to wonder if something had happened to it; it's been ten years already that we've seen it, and I really don't know how old it is. It's just not winter until I see my merlin. Especially when the highs are pushing 87-88 degrees, as this week. <g!>

November 11, 2005: Veteran's Day, honor them all!

Brian's report:

Very boring day at the site. All birds were seen in a 15 min period today.

TV: 29
WT Hawk: 1
Coop: 1

Total 31

Thanks, Brian! Whew. That's a hard day, all right. Our next front isn't going to come soon enough to do any real good, unfortunately. It's slated to arrive on the 16th, and may not do any good for the watch (unless the counters are having so much fun out there that we can't peel them off of the hill for a few more days, <big grin!>).

November 12, 2005:

Brian's report:

Had a flock of snow geese, with three "blue geese",
fly over this morning.

TV: 162
Black: 15
RT Hawk: 1
Coop 1:

Total 179

Thanks, Brian!

November 13, 2005:

Dane's report:

Red-tailed Hawk : 2
Turkey Vulture : 30
Black Vulture : 19
Cooper's Hawk : 1
Peregrine Falcon : 1
Osprey : 1
Total = 54

Thanks, Dane! Ah, a little more variety to spice the day. Every little bit helps!

November 14, 2005:

Brian's report:

This is probably the last post I will be sending you, so I wanted to share some interesting numbers from
this year. I used the HWI (Hawkwatch International) data for this information.

This year was a lowest year ever for Broad-winged Hawk. We didn't even have a 100,000 bird day (which I
don't think has happened before). This is the highest year for Osprey (240), Zone-tailed Hawks (10), White-tailed Hawks (25), White-tailed Kite (9), and Short-tailed Hawks (3). Bald Eagles tie for the highest year of four. This is the second highest year for Swallow-tailed Kites (56), Mississippi Kites (10004), Ferruginous Hawks (5), Harris's Hawk (25), Merlin (36), and Peregrine (229).

Also we had the highest single day record for Peregrines and a FIVE FALCON SPECIES DAY.

We've seen 202 birds species in the park since August 15th, 165 were seen at the site.

Today
TV 39
RT Hawk 1
Swainson's 1
Black V 1
Peregrine 1

Total 44 (1 bird missing pending count audit)

NOTE: add one red-shouldered hawk, true total remains 44

Thanks, Brian! Gee, just one more day to go to end of watch. It's finally here, and I'm not ready for it to end! Especially when we have the first seemingly decent cold front about to hit us tomorrow night after the watch closes for the season. Murphy's Law! <laugh!> Ah well, it's not going to make an appreciable difference in numbers, but fronts usually do bring an interesting spread of birds hammering through. Let's see what tomorrow brings ... hopefully, a decent day to take the crew home and put the watch to bed!

November 15, 2005:

Joel's report:

Well another one in the books, couldn't post last night because of the storm. Below is the last day's report.

Today marks the end of the 2005 season, thanks to all the visitors, volunteers, and this year's crew for making it a very interesting one. Yes, we ended with the lowest season total ever, but it had some highlights as well. The drop of over 730,000 from last year's numbers can be accounted for by the two hurricanes. Still, the variety was awesome with 26 species seen.

Great weather today but slow in numbers. We did add one more species for the site list, a Field Sparrow.

Turkey Vulture 28
Black Vulture 64
Peregrine Falcon 1
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 1
Total 95

Thanks, Joel! Correction from Monday: add one red-shouldered hawk to the list. I left it in the overall total; we knew it was there, just didn't know which species dodged the final report until the review. <grin!> So, the total for the 14th remains at 44.

Thanks from our end, too, to everyone who made this fall's watch such a success in spite of all the bumps thrown at us by Mother Nature! And don't you know, she's not finished yet. As I write this, there is yet another tropical depression working in the alley. Gamma, she's called (or will be, if she reaches storm status). Unbelievable! Middle of November and the tropics are still cooking. At any rate, that strong front we were expecting actually made it down (like a freight train!) and is now through the Coastal Bend. I suspect there will be a number of birds of all kinds sucked down its wake, but all in all, like we said, not enough to make up the difference, <laugh!>! Thanks again, all, and we'll see you on the hill!