Corpus Christi Caller Times Editorials - Watchers come from all points of the compass to observe hawk migration

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Tuesday, October 12, 1999

Watchers come from all points of the compass to observe hawk migration
Visitors from as far as Ireland, Canada and Mexico were among those who descended upon Hazel Bazemore County Park to see white-tailed hawk, Mississippi kite, prairie falcon and other raptors

Broad-winged hawks are the main show but people who come to the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch are half the fun. They come from farther and farther away as the count becomes better known, its fame grows. Birds are good business. A number of birders at the watch said they had first learned of it from the Internet.
   One who probably came the farthest this year is Daniel Mantle, a 20-year-old geology student from Dublin, Ireland. Daniel comes from a family of birders.
   Another visitor from far away is Steve Greidanus, of Windsor, Canada. He participates in Hawk Watches at Holiday Beach Migration Observatory. "The broad-winged push is over up there,'' he commented. Steve has added 40 new birds to his life list since he has been here. He was lucky enough to get to see a prairie falcon. Other new birds included a white-tailed hawk and Mississippi kites.
   Dave and Sue Wright were here from Kingwood. Steve Welborn, recently returned from a stint in Alaska, came back in time to participate in the watch. He is now living in Aransas Pass. Margaret Land is a teacher in Kingsville. She drove up to see the hawks.
   Jeff Smith, like official counters, Joel Simon, Ryan Wagner and Fernando Ramos Rincon, hawk expert from Veracruz, Mexico, is employed by Hawk Watch International. He gave a short talk on counting hawk populations, explaining that the reason it was being done was to create a standard for monitoring them. The size of the population can be an indicator of the health of the ecosystem, he said.
   Frank and Marion Peace attended the watch from Houston. Frank is working on a computer software system of downloading weather data in order to identify and follow flocks of migrating hawks. While here, he made several visits to the Corpus Christi Airport to consult and analyze radar.
   Paul Varner and Marla Drewink, from Houston and Austin, were here to make a science fiction-type short film in which flocks of birds rescue a man from a mental institution. The size of Paul's camera and his seriousness of intent gave birders an interesting diversion. Marla makes documentary films and her equipment consisted of an old, nostalgia-invoking Roliflex camera. She took many shots of Paul. Their first day at the watch was unfortunate. Ordinarily, many thousands of hawks would have gone through but, probably because of the hurricane which played such havoc up the length of the East Coast, the migration was held up. They persevered and were finally reward by a day when the sky was filled with raptors.
   Mike Beath and Barbara Hannigan are from Brighton, Mass. They have participated in watches from Cape May, Derby Hill, around the Great Lakes and throughout New England and the East Coast. He is a professional musician and she is an attorney. They pronounced the Hazel Bazemore Hawk Watch the ultimate trip of a lifetime.
   John Kennedy, of Medford, Mass., has encountered Beath and Hannigan on East Coast watches. Asked if his name has given him any difficulty, he said, "No, but it hasn't done me any good, either!''
   Martin Cribb is a volunteer at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge who showed a rare bird to Audubon Outdoor Club field-trippers several years ago He came to help with the counting.
   Peter Collins works in software in Cupertino, Calif., and was one who had first heard of this watch on the Internet. He has mostly done the Golden Gate Hawk Watch. Collins' praise for the Hazel Bazemore Watch was enthusiastic. "It's like going to Vera Cruz, Mexico,'' he said, "only half as far.''
   I owe a heartfelt thanks to an old friend, Jerry Unruh, and to a new friend, Lynn Guerra. They rescued me from an embarrassing plight. I was seated happily in my old, striped yard chair, and an insulated glass of ice tea in one hand an my binoculars in the other when suddenly I heard the tearing sound of splitting material. I had no time to wonder what was happening. The seat of my chair had ripped out and let me down. I was wedged on the ground with feet and arms extended over my head, still clutching binoculars and tea. Jerry and Lynn gallantly extricated me and, to their credit, neither laughed. Luckily I was only bruised and I am afraid if I had been a witness I would not have been able to restrain the overwhelming, loud mirth that used to annoy my little sister when we went to Danny Kaye movies.

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