I love to open my e-mail and see all the reports from the hawkwatch sites from around the country [BIRDHAWK]
The hawks are on their way! I can feel the excitement building as the hundreds of hawk-watch sites throughout the country post their numbers and observations.
With all of the recent rains here in Veracruz things have slowed down a bit. In the next few days we will begin to see more activity.
As a side note I have been working hard on practical ecology/conservation based project to thwart the continued de-forestation here in Mexico. I has to do with an improved strain of pasture grass that is 3 to 4 times as effective as normal pasture growth... I will be making posts here in the very near future with more details.
It's still no to late to sign up for the three dates for the hawk watch/birding tours. I would love to have more people here to experience the worlds most concentrated raptor migrations.
The migration continues. Yesterday over 34,000 Mississippi Kites MK were counted in Veracruz. With a total of 236,000 MK counted thus far in 2010 (source Hawkcount.Org) Mississippi kites are graceful in flight and can often be seen grabbing a dragonfly for a in flight snack. Once again I am extending an invitation to all to "come on down" and experience the Veracruz bird of prey migrations first hand.
Eyes to the sky,
David
Yesterday, I climbed a ridge in Piedra Labrada, Veracruz, with a panoramic view northward to see if I could spot some of the first migrating raptors. After scanning the sky for several hours I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. I had a praying mantis perched on my spotting telescope and it was watching me looking for hawks! (or so it seemed :-) ) It reminded me of a blast from the past, a Rockwell song "Somebody's Watching Me. Below is a youtube video thats spoofs the song and I couldn't help bus chuckle when I saw it.
I got these pics of the praying mantis with my Canon EOS 40D and 60mm ESF 2.8 (macro)
So back to my raptor observations, after scanning for about 5 hours I had seen roaming resident BV's black vultures as well as a handful of resident TV's turkey vultures. In addition to this I could observe that there was a significant dragonfly and butterfly migration underway, with thousands skimming by each hour.
Around 4pm, I got that glimpse that every hawk-watcher and birder wants..... headed my way I could see a distinct raptor profile with some ragged plumage. I had a Hook-billed Kite Chonroheirax unicinatus!! I scrambled for the camera, Canon Rebel T1i with Canon 400mm 5.6 lens and was able to get off about 22 shots as it passed by.
This shot in flight is a male hook-billed kite (gray and white barring on the belly) Hook-billed kites lack a surpra-orbital ridge which gives the head the look of a "monster pigeon on steroids" while in flight.
What a thrill to observe and photograph this bird! I will be continuing to post my raptor migration observations from Veracruz Mexico.
Good birding All and Eyes to the Sky.
David
