[texbirds] Swainson's Hawks in Corpus Christi
- From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:00:13 -0400
Hi all -
I got a brief message last night that there were Swainson's Hawks setting down
in the fields near the CC airport, off Rand Morgan Rd. I got there about
8:45am, and there were hundreds of Swainies scattered down a 3 mile long
stretch, and out into the fields as far as the heat shimmer would let you see.
I pulled off onto the shoulder to get photos of the nearby ones as they were
feeding on insects in the stubble. I would guess grasshoppers, since the
hawks were running around on the ground like ungainly chickens, pouncing on
prey and quickly gobbling them down.
The Hawks were not too concerned with the passing traffic, and some were within
50 feet of the road. I digiscoped a lot of stills with the Pentax K3, and
also stills and videos with the iPhone.
Had I been diligent, there were probably 400 - 500 all told in the fields that
adjoined the road, but I could see through the scope that there were many more
waaay out in the farther fields. All in all, there were certainly a few
thousand, but whether it was 2000 or 5000, I cannot say.
About 10 am the first ones started flying up off the fields, and by 10:15 there
were small kettles in all directions. One started up not far from me, so I
jumped out of the car and hand-held the scope and the Pentax to shoot flybys.
It was pretty busy for a few minutes there, and some were so close that I could
not get all of the bird in the frame!
I saw and photographed quite a few rufous-morph individuals, mostly immatures,
but no full dark-morph birds. Darn.
When I got home at about 11am, there was a big stream of Turkey Vultures,
Swainson's Hawks, and Broad-winged Hawks passing right over my house. I
called Dane Ferrell over at the hawk watch, and he said that they had birds
literally all over the sky. In the next 30 minutes or so I watched and
photographed probably 500+ vultures, 250+ Swainson's (including at least 4 full
dark-morph), 100 Broadies (one possible Chocolate Drop - the size was right,
but it was edge-on and I could not see the shape), and a scattering of
Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Ospreys, Wood Storks, Anhingas, and White
Pelicans. Very cool!
Clay Taylor
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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