Subject: California Condors
Date: Apr 16 18:47:15 2002
From: Ruth Sullivan - GODWIT at worldnet.att.net


Hello Carol,
What a trip you had!!!!!
When Patrick and i chased rare birds in California,we did not spend that
much time to see a lot of other birds,birding manly around Point Ray.I love
to drive and take my time to find some of this birding spots.We did take a
trip to Arizona where we was driving on the coast and on this trip we found
176 species.I believe California have more birds on there list,because the
state is so much larger.Any way, i thank you to put this Web-site from the
California Condors on to tweeters.I have mine all printed out for later
use.I wish the photos would be better,so you can see details of this
magnificence birds.


Ruth Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net
Tacoma
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn & Carol Schulz" <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
To: "Jean (w)" <Jeanb at norstarmachine.com>; "Anderson, Marilyn & Harlan"
<Marnhar at 3-cities.com>; "Tweets" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 2:54 PM
Subject: California Condors


> Hi Tweeters, and friends:
> I took a loonng trip to Calif. I had never been there before, so I did a
> very ambitious tour of Southern CA and the Central Coast. It took 2 1/2
> weeks. My husband drove half the trip w/ me thank goodness, as the total
> trip was almost 4000 miles. Highlights were birding Sacramento WLR, the
> Salton Sea, Santa Barbara, Buellton & Solvang, Paso Robles, and Elkhorn
> Slough at Monterey Bay. But the absolute best was seeing the California
> Condors at Pfieffer Big Sur State Park which is about 150 miles south of
San
> Francisco.
> My husband traveled south w/ me, and as we drove I promised him that we
> wouldn't be birding. (He is a non-birder.) I told him that during his
part
> of my trip we would be "tourists only". But as we approached Monterey on
> March 25, and were heading around the wonderful "17 Mile Drive" it became
> apparent that we'd have time to drive the 20+ miles south of Monterey
along
> the beautiful Big Sur coast to Pfiffer Big Sur St Park. We saw whales
> migrating and lots of other sea life as we went, and the weather was nice.
> The road wasn't very scary at that point, and it was great. We got to the
> park in the early afternoon. At the store inside the park we talked to
the
> people, and they said that the Condors often came in to roost in a big
> redwood next to the store in the afternoon. We waited around but the
birds
> did not appear. We drove the 1/2 mile up the road to the ranger stn.
Here
> the rangers told us that the birds sometimes could be seen flying up the
> valley in the morning. We found a cabin in the area, and stayed
overnight.
> The next morning we drove up to the ranger stn. There is a great view
from
> the parking lot and road. Several birders were there, and we set up our
> scopes and started watching from 7:30am on. We could hear lots of birds,
> including a Pygmy Owl, and watched Acorn Woodpeckers. My husband sat in
the
> car reading. He had an FRS radio. I told him I'd tell him if we saw the
> Condors. We waited quite awhile, and I kept jumping when we'd see a
Turkey
> Vulture. There were several. The Vultures looked huge when they were
near
> the ridges. Finally at 9:10 the call went up. Here come the Condors.
> They were out at a great distance to the west down the valley and we saw
at
> least 6 of them flying. I watched them fly in my scope. At least one had
> the huge white wing linings of an adult. The "fingers" at the end of the
> wings were splayed and flared upward. We watched for several minutes.
Then
> the birds landed about 1 1/2 miles away and perched on a rock. Now my
> husband got to see them too. We waited and hoped that they would fly
closer
> but they never did. Nevertheless, I had seen them very well in the scope,
> and was glad for the views that we did get. (Now I want to go back, and
try
> to see them again. I'd allow up to 3 days to get try to get good views.
> I'd bird along the coast and in the Monterey area when I wasn't looking
for
> the Condors.)
> >From there we continued down the Big Sur Coast, and yes the road does get
a
> little scary at times. But it's not as bad as the "Going to the Sun
> Highway" in Glacier Park for instance. (In the winter, the Big Sur coast
> road south of Pfieffer Big Sur always seems to wash out and I'm not
> surprised.) I would have loved to have stopped and birded on the way, as
I
> could hear strange birds singing, but we were "touristing" again at that
> point.
> Later when I was birding alone on my return trip, I stopped to bird in
Santa
> Barbara which has tons of fabulous habitat. There is a Museum of Natural
> History there which has two large birding halls. An excellent place.
> Hanging from the ceiling of one hall there are three mounted flying birds.
> There is a Turkey Vulture, a Golden Eagle, and a California Condor. The
> Condor wings look over twice the width of the Vulture's wings. And the
> wingspan of the Eagle is about 2/3 to 3/4 the width of the Condor. Sibley
> says the wingspan of the vulture is 67", the Golden Eagle is 79" and that
> the Condor's is 109" (9 feet!). But I don't know. The specimen in the
> museum looked even bigger to me. A truly awesome bird (and museum w/
> wonderful birding grounds). Wow.
> Before we left on our trip I had written about some Calif Dreamin' and I
> include the msg below w/ the link to the Condor website. In the Seattle
> paper today, they said that an adult pair actually have a nestling in
those
> Los Padres Mts. It's on pg 8 of the Seattle Times. "For the first time
in
> 18 years, a pair of California Condors have laid, brooded, and hatched an
> egg in the wild...". This is new, and may not be on the website yet.
> The rest of my trip was wonderful. I saw 170 species, 18 of which were
> lifers for me. I'll try to write about it all later, when I recover. It
> was not supposed to be the right time of year to bird in California, but I
> found it to be just great. What a wonderful trip.
> Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> Here's the msg I sent to Tweeters before the trip:
> --------------------------
> Hi Tweets:
> I'm doing some Calif dreamin'. I've just had it with the cold weather,
> windy drizzle, etc. I think it's colder now in Washington than it was in
> Jan. Welcome to spring, NOT! So my dreamin' has gotten to goin'. I'll
> leave in a couple of days.
> I have never birded in California. I really want to see a Condor. I
found
> the following website.
> http://www.ventanaws.org/fldnotes.htm
> It says, "The best condor viewing can
> be found at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. [About 20 miles south of Carmel
on
> the coast. This is about 150 mi south of San Francisco.] Scan the
redwood
> treetops near the park entrance for perched
> condors and nearby Mt. Manuel for condors in flight. "
> There are recent exciting notes from Feb 2002. The "teenage" birds are
now
> showing courting behavior. Also, you'll never guess what these birds are
> eating instead of roadkill.
> Very cool site. Check it out.
> Yours, Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> linusq at att.net
>
>