Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Migration keeps hawk watchers' eyes on the skies

Phyllis Yochem/Caller-Times

Every fall, birdwatchers turn out to watch raptors, which migrate after spending the summer in northern areas where they nest and rear young. They move to southern latitudes where food is more plentiful.

Everyone on the hill at Hawk Watch 2001 last week was looking eagerly through binoculars pointed toward the distant north. The morning air was electric with excitement and anticipation. Broad-winged hawks had begun to rise from their night roost in trees spread across the valley.
   Hazel Bazemore County Park, in the northwest corner of Corpus Christi, is one of the best birding spots in the country. This was going to be a great day, with 200,000-plus hawks being counted overhead. Birders were here from all over the world to participate in the spectacle.
   Searching the skies
   Hawks are raptors, birds of prey that feed on other animals. Every fall, many raptors migrate after spending the summer in northern areas where they nest and rear young.
   They move to southern latitudes where food is more plentiful. Groups of them often follow geographical features such as coastlines in their migration.
   They find thermals of heated air and use them like stairs to climb to high altitudes where they can coast for miles, carried by rivers of wind.
   Sometimes they are so high they look like specks of dust or flies. Other times they are forced to stay lower, and birders watching at Bazemore can see their fierce faces.
   Most of the migrants are broad-winged hawks, medium-sized buteos of the forest, but other species present in smaller numbers include kites, harriers, accipiters and falcons.

Jimmy Jackson/Special to the Caller-Times

Hawks filled the skies during Hawk Watch 2001 at Hazel Bazemore County Park this past weekend.

   Other birds migrate along with hawks. There may be flocks of anhinga, wood storks, vultures, or white pelicans. An immature bald eagle was spotted this year.
   The watch lasts from Aug. 15 through Nov. 15, but peak days are usually in the last week of September.
   A four-day Celebration of Flight started Thursday and went through Sunday, with a Blessing Ceremony from our Native American Association, talks on hawks by Hawk Watch International personnel and live hawk demonstrations by Last Chance Forever.
   Joel Simon is the Hawk Watch coordinator. Hawk Watch International counters are Devon Taylor, Karen Johnson and Greg Greene. Roland Doer, from Holland, is serving as education director.
   Some of the faithful local volunteers include: Glenn and Jimmy Swartz, Patty and Bill Beasley, Jo and Bob Creglow, Barb and Art Olsen, Doris Harmonson, Larry Jordan and Richard Gibbons.
   Out-of-towners include: John and Nancy O'Neill from Athens, Ala.; Peter Collins of San Jose, Calif.; Eddie Hertz, a biological technician at Balcones National Wildlife Refuge, and his black Labrador.
  
  

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

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