Diane and Tweeters:
Here is a message I wrote last spring. I saw the California Condors in
California on March 26, 02. I understand the Condors were viewable in the
Big Sur area until late in March, when they all flew to the Sespe Condor
area in southern Calif. They may still be in southern CA until later in
Jan, so I would check out the Ventana Wilderness Society website. The link
is near the end of the message. It has great info for birders about the
condors.
I viewed the condors from the parking lot of the Ranger Stn at Big Sur.
Very, very inspiring.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines
linusq at att.net
-------------------
>From Carol Schulz -posted Apr 16, 02
(The total trip from when I left and when I arrived back home was Mar 23-Apr
10, 02.)
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. [Jan.03-Last spring it was sealions on the
shore. This winter it's dead deer.]
Very cool site. Check it out.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines
linusq at att.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Bag??s" <dbagues at earthlink.net>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>; "OBOL" <OBOL at LISTS.ORST.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 11:40 PM
Subject: California Condors


> Hi,
>
> I anticipate being in northern Arizona, and southern and coastal
California,
> in the next week or two. Can anybody tell me my odds of seeing a
California
> Condor, and where? Are there any good birding spots from Sedona north to
> the Arizona border?
> How about the San Diego area? (I've got books for northern California,
but
> had never planned on getting to the south part of the state.)
>
> Thank you.
> Diane Bagues
> Milwaukie, Oregon
> dbagues at earthlink.net