Bird Calendars

NOTES FROM NATURE

By Jerry Toll

Revised Expectations

It was one of those days when I wasn't expecting much. I had been to the Hawk Watch the day before, hoping for a big flight. The winds were from the north, normally for early October an excellent flight day, but the movement just wasn't as big as expected. So I wasn't too excited about the prospects the next morning. There was a little fog and no wind, hardly worth my getting out early.

As I approached Crescent, Iowa, the village five miles south of the Hawk Watch site, I noticed a few raptors in the distance drifting north out of the Loess Hills into the flood plain. "TVs," I said to myself, sick of seeing Turkey Vultures drifting around the Watch and wishing their migration flight was over.

Getting closer now, I realized they were not TVs, they were Swainson's Hawks. This is what I'd been hoping for. Each fall the birds form flocks, sometimes huge ones, and kettle their way to wintering grounds in Argentina. In most years the vast majority of Swainson's Hawks passing by Hitchcock do so during a short two-week window. Most years there is a single day when over 500 go past. This could be the day. Last year the large kettle, over 700, came through late in the day just before sunset. Having left at noon, I missed it. I was determined not to miss the big flight this year.

As I approached, perhaps 20 of the birds flew in front of me. I decided to see where they were going. I didn't need to go far. About a mile north, there they were, a field full of them, looking like Canada Geese, they were so densely packed. I parked and started scanning to get a count. They were pretty skittish and started leaving the bean field. I backed off, but before I did, I counted an exciting 816.

Rather than stay, I headed to Hitchcock to see if there were more in the skies. When I arrived, Jim Meyer reported seeing the same group on the way to the Watch and counted roughly the same number. We decided to get a more accurate count. One of us would go back to the flock; the other would stay and watch the skies. I got lucky.

When I returned to the bean field, only a few hundred had remained, but I found the others farther up the road in a larger field. This time I was able to make a more accurate count, even though they began to drift across I 29 to the west. The final tally—956!

Back at Hitchcock, Jim and I speculated how the flock ad gotten past the counters the previous day. Because they were located farther south past the Hitchcock site, they had either passed after dark, which seemed unlikely, or passed unseen under our radar. A few days earlier, I saw a

flock of what appeared to be Swainson's Hawks flying at tree-level in the valley. It is not a place we normally look for migrating raptors, and it is difficult to identify them in shadow with the setting sun in our faces. Perhaps that is how they were able to get past us.

Before the day was over and rain shut down the migration, we had attained a grand total of 1,054 Swainson's Hawks for the day.

Every birder, in fact anyone who has a passion, can recall events that solidify or reclaim their interest. Many times my interest has reached a plateau, a time of failing enthusiasm, but often I have found some way to reclaim it. Usually it is a shift in direction, a tangent that will add to and eventually round out my interest in birds.

This day, this one event, on October 2, was one of those increasingly rarest of days that reclaimed my passion—a day that began not unlike any other but became memorable— because to see that many Swainson's Hawks in such a common place as a field a few miles from home is to wonder at the possibilities.

DeSoto Christmas Count

By Jerry Toll

Greetings to all! We added two new species to the overall list: Bufflehead and American White Pelican. That brings the overall number up to 103.

We set a new record for species in a single count— 67; the previous record was 64. We also set a new record of individuals—100,182. The old record was 48,027.

Notable sightings were a Prairie Falcon at DeSoto and 3 Trumpeter Swans just east of DeSoto in the Hitchcock sector. Notable absences in this count but sighted in at least half of the past counts were Ross' Goose, Rough-legged Hawk, Red-headed Woodpecker, Winter Wren, and Yellow-rumped Warbler. Species seen during count week but not recorded on count day were Red-breasted Merganser, Killdeer, Winter Wren, Brown Thrasher, and Eastern Towhee.

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