Our southern crews have been hard at work this fall, despite the challenges thrown at them. From extreme weather conditions, whether too hot or too wet, to government shutdowns, no two days have been alike! These obstacles make it all the more important to celebrate our hardworking crew and supporters like you. We were so grateful to have many of you join us for two events this fall, including a Sunday of Birds & Bingo in Albuquerque to celebrate 40 years of the Manzano Mountains HawkWatch, and our first-ever South Texas Soar & Pour before the annual Celebration of Flight festival. If you didn’t get to join us at an event this fall or stop by the sites yourself, check out how the season has been going so far from our crew leads.
Manzano Mountains HawkWatch, NM
The season’s been going great here at Manzano’s 40th year anniversary! We’ve counted 3,642 and banded over 250 birds, including a Golden Eagle, a Broad-winged Hawk, and a Prairie Merlin! New Mexico has been a lot wetter than most of the crew members expected, with a late monsoon season hitting us pretty hard up on the mountain. We’ve still had tons of wonderful moments at our observation point, including seeing our first Merlin and Ferruginous Hawk! We’re looking forward to the rest of our season and the last few weeks of hawkwatching and banding.
Fun wildlife from Manzanos includes many deer, several Gray Foxes seen on the road up to camp, and a few owl sightings, including Long-eared, Flammulated, and Northern Saw-whet Owls. We also have an adorable Horned Lizard that lives right by our observation point, whom we’ve nicknamed Jeffery. Most notably, we’ve had some bear activity around camp!
Notable visitations include a group of former crew members who worked up here in the late 90s and early 2000s—shoutout to Janet, Ruth, Anne, and Elizabeth. Other former HWI members have stopped by, including Tucker Davidson, Jessie Jewel, and Will Britton. The Albuquerque Academy birding club also visited for what was a pretty awesome day of hawkwatching! Additional shoutout to long-time Manzanos visitor and volunteer, Roger Grimshaw, one of our personal favorites.
In our downtime, we’ve celebrated several crew member birthdays, had a lot of fun with communal meals, and played many, many games. The list includes Monopoly Deal, Coup, Wingspan, and, of course, Catan!
Grand Canyon HawkWatch, AZ
Counting is going well at the Grand Canyon HawkWatch! We were surprised by thunderstorms the last week of September, but we’re back out in the field for full days now. Our daily park presentations, which were going very well, have halted for the time being due to the recent government shutdown. On the bright side, this gives us more time to focus on the count.
We’ve had memorable visitors, animal and human alike, including a few Accipiters attacking our plastic owl, lovely people from around the globe wanting to talk birds, a service dog named Walter, and a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk—only one this season so far! We’ve caught sight of roadrunners, migrating warblers, a random Sabine’s Gull, swifts, and swallows. We’ve also spotted Grand Canyon Black Tarantulas, lots of elk, bighorn sheep, lots of ravens, and squirrels that chewed through a lunchbox!
On our off time, you can find us mainly hiking, birdwatching, spending time in the Grand Canyon library, and photographing elk.
Corpus Christi HawkWatch, TX
Early in the season, the Corpus Christi crew persevered through “feels like” temperatures from 110-115°F most days, then dipping down to 100- 109°F. By the end of kite season, we counted 24,000 Mississippi Kites and 175 Swallow-tailed Kites. Broad-winged Hawks started to pick up soon after, with September 16th bringing over 12,000, and September 20th, more than 42,000 hawks! Numbers kept rising through the end of the month when we celebrated the peak with the annual Celebration of Flight festival, featuring over half a million hawks in three days!
Around the platform, we have a family of 22 Collared Peccary, which includes about six super cute babies. The Texas Indigo Snake has appeared several times, bathing/drinking in our bird drip-pond. We’ve also watched a gorgeous bobcat make several attempts at White-tipped Doves and squirrels.
We have welcomed nearly 1,000 visitors from all across the US, Texas, and other countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Iran, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
After hours, you can find us sleeping, birding, and playing Farkle and Wingspan. We enjoy meals and Strawberry Splodge prepared for us by our regular visitors and special friends.
This Raptor Month, consider making a gift to support our raptor migration monitoring and population research. Click here to invest in the future of the migration network: https://hawkwatch.org/supportmigration/
This blog was written by Sammy Riccio, our Communications Manager, as well as our crew leads Amanda Young, Michaela LaPlante, and Libby Even. You can learn more about Sammy here.
