Tuesday, April 17, 2001

Hawks put on a spectacular display for birders

Recently, while drinking my coffee, Fritz Cook called. He wanted to tell me about a bird his family had found stunned on the ground in front of their kitchen window. Their mother picked it up and put it on a table, but it was beautiful and was still alive. He described a male hooded warbler.
   Craig had started playing his harmonica. The bird regained consciousness and hopped on Craig's shoulder. In about a half hour, it flew away.
   Bird sitings great and small are equally important among avid birders and those who have just taken up the hobby. A spectacular display of hawks the day before (I was initially alerted to this by the Cooks) inspired a frenzy of phone calls.
   It started when I arrived home after lunching in Port Aransas. Our little dog, Fanny, met me at the door with her leash. On the walk, Fanny loitered, and out of habit, I glanced up. Hey! A hawk overhead ... looked like a broad-winged hawk, the species that migrates over Hazel Bazemore Park in the fall. I could see the strong black and white bands in its tail. A little farther back was another, coming low over the trees, and another.
   Hawks galore
   As we turned into our driveway, Louise Cook with her two excited sons, Craig and Fritz, drove up ... all pointing up. "Have you seen the hawks?'' they said. "They're all over. We didn't want you to miss them!'' It was the Cooks who had alerted me to the Swainson's hawks roosting in a field on the west side last fall.
   I removed Fanny's leash while looking at my message machine. Ten messages! I have never had more than three. Many kind friends and birders had called to be sure I did not miss the wonderful spring show of migrating hawks passing over Flour Bluff and Lamar Park.
   My first call was from Howard Rash, from Tropic Isles in Flour Bluff at about 11 a.m. He had been watching them, he said, for about 35 minutes, streaming steadily north above Staples Street and Yorktown Boulevard.
   Alerted callers
   The next caller was an almost speechless Emilie Payne. A river of hawks was passing over the Hans Suter Wildlife Area at noon. She later told me it was the greatest group of migrating hawks she could remember having seen in spring. Joy Cooper also called from Flour Bluff.
   Bird rehabilitator Rachel Wilken was my next caller. She was seeing the birds from her house on Brawner Parkway.
   A message was relayed from another friend: Someone at 14 Sharon Drive was seeing hawks and wanted to get the word to me. A caller from Kostoryz and Golihar roads wanted to be sure I had looked up. And Anne Lee, who lives on Louisiana Parkway, called at 3 p.m.
   By then I was frantic to grab my binoculars and get outside to see if they were still coming. It was the end of the parade but I was there to applaud.
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.

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