Hazel Bazemore Park
Raptor enthusiasts and birders have been watching hawks in migration at Corpus Christi and western Nueces County (including Hazel Bazemore County Park) since the mid-1970's.
The watches were originally conducted as individually-manned watches, staffed by whomever could come, whenever they could come. Sometimes consecutive days were monitored; often it was catch-as-catch-can according to availability of warm bodies.
In 1988, then-Texas Regional Editor John Economidy initiated the first 10-consecutive day counts at Hawk Hill (aka Mockingbird Hill, aka that spot on the north side of the 17th tee of the Wood River County Club's golf course). John's counts officially put the site on the international map, as seasonal reports were then published in the Hawk Migration Studies journal, published by the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) twice a year.
Picket line stakeouts were also tried, to get a feel for the "corridor" of hawks during the fall migration. As more volunteers became interested and willing to stake out suspected hotspot flyover sites, observers recorded hawks during both fall and spring migrations.
Fall is without a doubt the premiere migration period for this area, bringing a million or more hawks overhead during the fall season. Spring flights are more sporadic over the area, as weather patterns enable migrating raptors to spread out much farther on their trek back north to their nesting grounds.
Hawk Watch International (HWI) took notice of the massive flights of hawks being reported to the international birding communities via the internet and journal articles published by HMANA.
In the fall of 1997, the first 90-consecutive day watch using paid observers was held at the Hazel Bazemore County Park watch site by Hawk Watch International. HWI, joined by generous contributions of materials, funding and other support from local and regional sources, continues to sponsor manned watches at the site each fall to this day.
An estimated 95% of the North American population of broadwinged Hawks (Buteo platypterus) fly over the Corpus Christi Hawk Watch site at Hazel Bazemore Park every fall in monster flights called kettles. Single kettles of 10,000 hawks are routine, and single flights of 100,000 hawks or more have been recorded. During the peak of the broadwinged hawk migration flight (generally around the last weekend in September), single day totals of 100,000 to 400,000 hawks have been recorded. The largest area flight recorded was October 4-5, 1977 when a monster cold front brought in 750,000 Broad-winged Hawks for an overnight roost.
Historically, the largest flights of hawks arrive at Corpus Christi, Texas between September 18 to September 30, although large flights regularly occur from mid-August to mid-October. Generally, the peak of the Mississippi kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) migration is in late August, followed by broadwinged hawks during the last two weeks in September and smaller numbers of Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsoni) in early October. Flocks of Mississippi kites, anhingas (Anhinga anhinga), and wood storks (Mycteria americana) are often seen in the midst of the broadwinged hawk kettles. Weather in the northern and eastern United States is a big factor in determining the actual dates of the flights.
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