Fearful of any full moon named after a blood worm, I slept through the overnight lunar eclipse. A few hawk watchers reported seeing it over Tucson through partly cloudy skies. Strange happenings followed in the wake of the eclipse.
The park was wet and muddy. Tubac Nature Center volunteers worked to replace canopies blown off the popup tents by yesterday’s wind and rain storms. A Peregrine named “Goose” joined the festivities under the Hawk Watch International tent. This season's hawk watch T-shirts were buried under layers of sweat shirts, jackets and coats.
Too many clouds kept us chilly and prevented any raptors from drying out enough to fly before 11:00. Still damp raptors then departed with Turkey Vultures, Redtails, Zonetails and a Cooper’s Hawk struggling past by noon.
Reports of another Red Phalarope at the near enough Amado Pond distracted some birders.
The overnight rain and sufficiently warm ground produced an ant hatch leading to the odd sight of Violet-green and Northern Rough-winged swallows sitting on the grass between the rows of parked cars picking through an unexpected feast.
Black Hawks, experts at circling around thermals, decided to use today to improve their estimate of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of each layer of yesterday’s thermals another hundred digits. So preoccupied, not a single Black Hawk flew over the park.
Covered in layers of blankets we celebrated pi day with apple pie washed down with any hot coffee that could be had.
At 4:00 I made the ultimate hawk watcher sacrifice and left the site early, off to Tucson to learn about HWI research on the forrest owls of the Chiricahua mountains. My departure paid off for the remaining counters as the season’s first Gray Hawk appeared circling with the Short-tailed Hawk before I reached midtown Tucson.
