Date: 3/14/25 7:38 am From: p c <pcollinsca48...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] SEAZ: Tubac Hawk Watch - Ron Morriss Park, Tubac, AZ 031325
SEAZ: Tubac Hawk Watch - Ron Morriss Park, Tubac, AZ 031325
Season 13: Episode 0313 - Still Running against the Wind
TL;DR
Migrating Raptors
Common Black Hawk 11
Swainson’s Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Cooper’s Hawk 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
American Kestrel 1
Turkey Vulture 44
Black Vulture 1
Other Raptors
Prairie Falcon
Peregrine
I arrived late. Wise raptors departed early. All were noted by the HWI crew and 34 cars worth of birders assembled at Ron Morriss Park.
Clairvoyant as the traveling raptors, the Tubac Nature Center relocated their Kids Day activities to the Tubac Community Center. I redirected a few families from the park to the Center where they met Pancho, the giant Vermilion Flycatcher who dwells at the Tumacacori National Historical Park, dissected owl pellets and hung out with some real-life raptors!
Back at the park, 11 Black Hawks used the high winds that were disassembling our popup tents to experience flight as a Peregrine. A high speed, low flying Turkey Vulture raised alarms as it raided the weedy field on our west, feigning to be a hunting Harrier.
Activity slowed with only a few migrants later in the day including our first Swainson’s Hawk of the season. A high flying Prairie Falcon made a leisurely pass over the park, heading south. A Black Hawk flew south, finding shelter along the river.
During the lulls I contemplated checking out a copy of “Of Mice and Men” at the Tubac Library to bring to Saturday’s Reading with Raptors event.
Coated in dust and weary of the wind, the last three counters closed the watch an hour early before the approaching rain could turn the desert into a quagmire.
