Hawkwatching at the HawkWatch

Before I tell you about the fun we had this weekend, I want to mention that I’m teaching two upcoming classes for Travis Audubon. The first is “Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Native Garden,” on October 13. This 3-hour class will take an in-depth look at wildlife gardening, from great native plants to design considerations to fun projects, and more. The next week, on October 20, I’m teaching a class geared toward kids: “Family Fun with Wildlife Gardening.” Designed for kids ages 4-11, along with their parents or grandparents, we’ll have fun taking a look at the different kinds of wildlife that you can attract to your backyard, understanding how native plants are connected to native wildlife, and making a gift for wildlife that every child can bring home to their own garden. Both classes have size limits, so please register soon and join us!

This weekend the boys and I drove down to Hazel Bazemore Park in Corpus Christi, where hundreds of thousands of hawks and other birds can be seen during peak migration times, especially in the fall. Though fall migration occurs over several weeks, at the end of September local birding groups hold the Corpus Christi Hawkwatch as a focused celebration. (note: above is a Harris’s Hawk)

The biggest numbers are usually of Broad-Winged Hawks, though we saw many other raptor species while we were there, including a Zone-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Hawks, and many Kites, Kestrels, and Peregrine Falcons. Due to the heavy rainstorms the day before, however, the numbers weren’t quite as high as might otherwise have been seen — merely thousands as opposed to hundreds of thousands in the overall count.

The photo above shows a typical kettle of Broad-winged Hawks, but I had to zoom in and crop out a lot of birds to show you something more than just dots in the sky. They swirl and soar as they catch thermals to help them move ahead on their journey.

Those watching with binoculars and scopes worked together to call out the birds they sighted. I was no help. I’m too much a novice at IDing hawks from a distance, but that’s one reason I wanted to go down to be with others who know their stuff. Of course, my boys had both of our binoculars, and all I had to work with was my zoom lens, but that’s okay, too.

Mine is not a massive zoom lens, mind you, so my hawk pictures are few. However, a stroll around the park let me snap some photos of other birds in the area. Above is a gorgeous Green Jay.

One reason Hazel Bazemore is such a top birding spot in the Corpus area is that it offers a variety of habitats to please many different bird species, including shorebirds, as well as birds that prefer denser vegetation.

These Ibises couldn’t make up their mind where they wanted to look for food and kept flying here and there and back again.

A Great Kiskadee is commonly seen in Corpus Christi, but it was a new bird for me and the boys. It has quite the personality.

This Wilson’s Warbler was tough to catch a glimpse of, and even tougher to get a picture of!

Of course, Corpus Christi birding in the fall wouldn’t be complete without lots and lots of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Looking down instead of to the sky, more wildlife was busy at work, including termite trails, which were fascinating. My son was most impressed with this ant’s ability to carry a relatively huge berry across a relatively huge distance.

As part of the Hawkwatch celebration, a falconer brought some birds out for show and tell (this includes the Harris’s Hawk at the top of the post, though Harris’s Hawks are occasionally spotted at Hazelmore each fall). Above is a captive-bred Aplomado Falcon, rare to spot in the wild but can be found in southwest Texas, Mexico, and farther south.

A European Barn Owl bears quite the resemblance to our native variety but is a bit smaller.

Here’s an Eagle Owl, which bears a resemblance to our Great Horned Owl but is actually native to Eurasia. It’s also larger than a Great Horned Owl. Gorgeous, it is.

Sometimes you’ve just got to end with a silhouette. That’s a Couch’s Kingbird above, showing off its classic bird shape.

FYI, it’s not too late to go see hawks down in Corpus Christi — they’ll continuing migrating throughout October. We hope to return to Hawkwatch next year — it’s so nice to be surrounded by lots of birders who can confirm identification, especially when the hawks are so high in the sky. Fun, fun, fun!

P.S. Thanks to my father-in-law for joining us! We were our own little flock of birders this weekend.