Migrating hawks & martins

[Louise Chambers]

Yesterday we paid a visit to the hawkwatch site at Hazel Bazemore Park, just north of Corpus Christi. It's pretty early in hawk migration schedule, but we saw 4 swallow-tailed kites, a couple of groups of mississippi kites, plus a few each of swainson's hawks, white-tailed hawks, redtailed hawks, broadwing hawks, red-shouldered hawks and turkey vultures. Also migrating overhead were some large groups of anhingas and smaller groups of white pelicans and wood storks - all using the thermals to travel south. There are some feeders set up in the park too, where we saw ruby-throated hummingbirds, black-crested titmice, cardinals, doves, etc. A Great Kiskadee was heard but not seen.

A nice bonus to all the hawks was an almost constant stream of swallows overhead - mostly Purple Martins along with lots of Cliff Swallows and a few Barn Swallows. We saw only one adult male martin and they were not vocalizing much, but enough to get our attention. How nice to continue seeing martins a month after the last nest has fledged!

Perhaps it's not surprising to see so many swallows along with the migrating hawks - kites and a few of the hawk species we saw eat insects, and kites, like martins, prey chiefly on flying insects.

Our local martin roost was still loaded when we checked last week - it will be interesting to see if it builds in numbers as sites further north disperse, or if it dwindles away entirely.

Anyone visiting roost sites is encouraged to report your findings, and just as importantly, your lack of findings, on the Project MartinRoost page.

http://www.purplemartin.org/roost/