Events at Ron Morriss Park are always daytime affairs. Like the old Wrigley Field, there are no lights on the ball field for night games. The dog park, the restrooms and the park itself close at dusk. Come dawn, especially during the spring raptor migration there’s always a chance for magic in the air.
I arrived at the watch at 7:30 in case some eager raptor decided to slip out early, finding a couple from Ontario on duty, scopes and cameras at the ready. Gradually other birders joined us forming a comfortable group of about 25. A Zonetail was the first mover at 8:30ish. The last of our hard core counters was in place by 9:00, in time for 6 more Zonetails. Three Black Hawks made stellar passes over the nonchalant crowd. Satiated by a month of Black Hawks? I urged soaking every passing raptor as the end of this year’s Black Hawk Bonanza is approaching. Some heeded my plea.
Others countered with a request I never expected to hear in March, in Arizona. What time do the Broadwings lift off? I demurred. Yes, there were extremely early Broadwings each of the last two mornings, pulled in by the HWI counters as they escaped northwest on the highway flight line. I advised returning the second week in April, around the 9th, when Broadwing expectations were more reasonable!
The 10 O’clock hour brought rising temperatures with a few of the increasing numbers of Swainson’s passing over. A kettle of three Black Hawks expanded to four. Two more Black Hawks brought us to 6 for the hour, 9 for the day. I whispered “need one more” to the other counters.
We added an Osprey and a migrating Gray Hawk as we melted into lunch. At 93º we were hotter than the spicy fresh coleslaw and other goodies we retrieved from coolers. All but the hard core counters had evaporated by 1:00. I called for the random midday high flying Black Hawk. The other counters obliged pointing out number 400 for the season gliding past the sun!
We had useful, light clouds most of the day that proved ineffective at cooling us, allowing our brains to fry. By 2:30 we registered 95 degrees. HWI Counter #1 picked out a passing Swainson’s and Redtail. The tall Texan counter from Corpus Christi pointed out what he expected was another Redtail following the first. Our jaws dropped as the bird came into view overhead. Broadwing. Overhead. In March. Midday. Great looks of another complete outlier breaking all my rules. We watched it stream north.
Around 3:00pm a birding tour group of a dozen Dutch birders rolled into the park hoping for a relaxing late afternoon of Arizona raptors. We yielded the our shade to these Northern Europeans. They neatly arranged our spare chairs under our two tents. Foolishly I taunted them by mentioning that they had missed a Broadwing by ten minutes. I felt an international incident developing. Too late to retract my remark, all I could do was turn south, scan and hope other raptors would redeem me.
A Swainson’s and some local Zonetails tried to help out. HWI #1, determined to overcome my faux pax, spied a distant Gray Hawk. She carefully tried to coax it closer. Nothing doing.
Suddenly she jumped up, pointing and shouting “Broadwing!” This one was more of a drifter, slowly moving overhead, lower than the pervious bird. Plenty of time for all to peruse the tail patterns, the dark trailing edge of the wings and facial features.
International crisis averted, everyone settled into another hour of scanning. More Swainson’s and a merlin were added. In between the tour group sorted out Kingbirds, Fly Catchers and other non-raptors.
A sinking sun and heavier clouds cooled things down slightly. Finally two Black Hawks streamed in from the north, settling down for the night far south of the the watch. Satisfied with their visit, the tour group piled into their van, embarking north toward Green Valley.
