Subject: California Condors
Date: Apr 17 13:35:30 2002
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com


To condor fans:

Just visited the Grand Canyon and for those heading that way, California
Condors were easily found near the s. rim visitor center (Bright Anger lodge
overlook), I had 2-3 on April 8th. There are apparently 36 birds
inhabitating the canyon as a whole, I haven't heard yet if this introduction
is "taking", but I gather they are very closely monitored, the birds are
even numbered on the white underwing patches.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com


>From: "Lynn & Carol Schulz" <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
>Reply-To: 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>
>Subject: California Condors
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 14:54:55 -0700
>
>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
>
>


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