One of those few memories I have of days in Junior High School in
south Texas involves gazing out an old school window and slowly
coming to the realization that there was something far more
interesting going on in the sky outside. Hundreds of small brown
hawks revolving in a circle; the more I stared the more would come in
to view. I didn't know anything about kettles of broad wings or of
migration, but I did know that this was quite a sight.

That memory stuck with me, and helped me jump at the chance to go
with a group arranged by Steve Hoffman of Hawk Watch International to
Vera Cruz last week. This is a trip report and a blatant plug for his
tour, and for Pronatura, the hawk counting organization at the site.

Clarice and I flew down on Friday night (the third). Turned out that
Vera Cruz has been having cloudy weather for about a month, then on
Thursday the second it finally got clear and hot. There was a lot of
pent up hawk migration out there, because Thursday had been a really
big day. The counters on top of the Bienvenido hotel in Cardel
counted over 658,000 birds in migration that day; the counters at
the second site in a soccer field in Chichicaxtle (11 km. to the
west) had over 250,000. Not quite a million, but close. About 85% (as
I recall) were broad wings. (Pronatura has been counting since 1991.
They are supported by an endowment, by grants, by Hawk Watch and
Hawk Mountain, and now by ecotourists. The typical seasonal count for
fall migration has been around 4 million).

Friday had seen 10,000 more. Saturday was the first day for Clarice
and me, which dropped to a still respectable 6,500 (from the hotel).
This sort of flight is, to say the least, humbling. 80 to 100 birds
in binocular field at any time, in most any direction, at a range close
enough for easy identification-- in short not counting the tiny black
dots further out there. Its trite to call it anything like a ballet
or whatever-- nothing really comes close. (Humor-- one flight of
28 white pelicans in a line coming straight at you, with a black
vulture (black vultures are not included in the counts) in the middle.
Pelicans start to kettle with a single mind, vulture's mind is somewhere
else. Black bird has to do a fancy barrel roll to avoid crossing
pattern of white in front and to the right. Good move but it looks
clumsy.)

On Sunday the broad wings fall off and the count is around 1000.
Monday I am sitting under the palapa on the hotel roof and Swainson's
start appearing, singly or small groups-- about 200 or so for most of
the morning (gives you time to notice that there is a steady stream
of peregrines, merlins, sharpies and coops passing). Then one lady in
the group noticed a big kettle forming out near the mountains. As
they like to do, birds from about 180 degrees of sky cruise in for the ride.
The mass takes on its own life and drifts close, then birds from the
top begin to cruise for the hotel. They lose altitude and begin to kettle
right out in front, streaming straight in from the north to the
bottom of the spiral, and at the same time streaming straight south
from the top. Started counting as they passed the hotel, in 15
minutes saw 3,120 Swainsons and 500 broadwings. All backlit and,
there ain't no other word-- beautiful (the numbers are not from me,
but from the people with the clickers).

Pronatura gave talks about conservation at night. Bill Clark gave a
talk about sharpie/coop identification. Laurie from Hawk Mountain
gave a talk about hawk mountain; one of the counters gave a report on
Mauritius kestrels (her other project). In the mornings our group
went generally birding (including the marsh winter home of the
peregrine from northern Alberta that had graced Tweeters a
couple of weeks ago). The environs around Vera Cruz is bird rich. Our
group "tick" was something like 270 species, while Clarice and I counted
223 species. We already have a respectable life list, but this trip
added 23 more for us. Neat little jewels like red warblers. And-- not
a single house sparrow or starling. One lunch in a classy restaurant
had prothonotary warblers playing in the rain gutters between the
tables and the ficus in the courtyard.

If you have any raptor blood in your veins you owe yourself a trip to
this site. In addition to the Hawk Watch and Bill Clark tours a few
University groups are going. Alan Fish of Golden Gate was helping
Clark's group. Also, Pronatura itself is arranging solo or group
trips. They will set up guided trips if you want, or just give
directions to neat places if you don't. They set up the buses and so
forth for Hawk Watch and did a good job. Also, I think they deserve
the business. They are attempting in the usual way to slowly
influence local attitudes, by involving school children in the watch
(at the soccer field) and by giving school programs. They are, also
as usual, doing it more out of dedication than for any steady income.
If you want to contact Pronatura directly their director is Ernesto
Inzunza and their tour director is Larry Maynard (both speak
English). Their e-mail address is verpronatura at laneta.apc.org. (Note,
this is the Xalapa, Vera Cruz chapter of Pronatura, only. The other
Pronatura chapters have other projects). Maybe if they can keep it up
they can get a few more young kids realizing that something far more
interesting is going on outside. At least, it will be more memorable.

I thought I'd end this with a list of raptors Clarice and I saw, then
list our 23 "lifers". That'll give the flavor well enough:

Raptors: Black, Turkey, and Lesser yellow-headed vultures; Osprey;
Hook-billed, White-tailed, Snail, and Mississippi kites; Sharpies
and Cooper's; Common and Great black hawk; Grey hawk; Roadside
hawk; Red-shouldered, broad-winged, short-tailed, Swainson's,
Zone-tailed and red-tailed hawks; White hawks; Black hawk eagle;
Crested caracara; Laughing falcon, Collared forest falcon; American
kestrel, Merlin, Aplomado, bat, and peregrine falcon.

Lifers: Mississippi kite, Black hawk eagle, Aplomado falcon, Double
striped thick-knees, Beryline hummingbird, Greater peewee, Dusky
flycatcher (yes, first one for me), Thrush-like mourner, Mexican
chickadee, Band-backed wren, Rufous-naped wren, Gray-breasted wood
wren, Brown-backed solitaire, russet nightingale-thrush, blue
mockingbird, warbling vireo, red warbler, rufous capped warbler,
golden browed warbler, varied bunting, stripe-headed sparrow, rusty
sparrow, common bush-tanager.

Go and see this place.
Jerry Broadus
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371