I agree Barbara; the California Condor is
a fantastic bird.
In
August my wife Kay and I did a bus trip through California,
Arizona, Utah
and Nevada.
Before I left Australia
I asked on the Birding-aus chatline for details of places where I might do some
birding, often difficult when touring by bus. I was contacted by a delightful
lady (Madeline) from Los Angeles
who gave me all sorts of information, ranging from how to pick the Hummingbirds,
to places where to look for Roadrunners crossing the road. As part of our trip
we went to the Grand Canyon (totally AWESOME),
where I had hoped, but didn’t expect, to see a Condor. Advice from
Madeline and a couple of other American birders suggested I look for “big,
black, plastic rubbish bags with a white tag (all the Condors are marked with a
white identifiable patagial tag) sitting on cliffs ledges 500 metres out from
the canyon’s rim”. When we arrived at the canyon we had time to do
a 2 mile walk literally along the edge. We had walked about a mile and had seen
lots of Turkey Vultures (aka TV’s) and the occasional Red-tailed Hawk. Kay
and I were with a young couple from Western Australia and a very young Irishman,
about 1 mile into the walk when something VERY big and black flew just over the
top of my head and proceeded to circle over the canyon about 10 metres away at
eye height. It was a Condor!!! I wasn’t carrying a camera but my wife,
one of the West Australians and the Irishman were. Both the WA chap and the
Irishman (only just bought his very first digital camera a couple of days
earlier) got photos of the bird – Kay got a brilliant shot of … …
… a lovely blue sky! It was something I think is one of my birding
highlights and will stay with me forever. We actually saw another Condor
towards the end of the walk.
I was
told that the possible reason that the bird had come so close to us was that
the species, in it’s days when it was more common, used to follow the
herds of animals that followed the cliff edge, looking for weak and sick
animals and tried to force them over the edge. Hopefully I didn’t look
that sick (I will admit I am getting a bit slow and fat in my old age) that the
bird thought it could scare me into falling over the cliff. Mind you, there
were plenty of other potential meals amongst the idiotic tourists who were
sitting, running and generally behaving in a potentially disastrous way right
on the canyon rim.
When you
consider that the total wild population got down to about 7 birds before they
were all trapped and taken into captivity, the Americans have done a brilliant
job bringing the species back. There are about 200 in the wild with a similar
number still in captivity, scattered through different locations in the west.
It is still a long way from being secure and we were shown a poster of a released
Condor that had died from ingesting coins (!!!!) thrown over the edge of the
canyon! I am sure the money could have been put to much better use.
I did
see a Coyote (no they don’t carry Acme brand dynamite, bird seed, anvils
or rocket propelled back packs) and 4 Greater Roadrunners (alas they also don’t
go “beep beep” – I am totally shattered!!!) at the former Henderson sewage works on the outskirts of Las Vegas, again with two
lovely, elderly American ladies. If anyone is going that way I can give
details.
Cheers,
Mark
From:
Barbara Preston [
Sent: Friday, 18 December 2009
5:10 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] vultures
in the Americas
....
I recently returned from a month in the USA (California)
and Cuba.
While I did not do any serious bird-watching, I do have two birds to report -
both vultures.
I visited Big Sur (south of San Francisco) with my son for a weekend.
There I had a wonderful view of a Californian Condor (Gymnogyps californianus). As we were driving south from
Deetjens, where we were staying (near Nepenthe - for those who know the area),
we saw a pair of golden eagles wheeling high above, then they were joined by a
Californian Condor - so much larger than the eagles (wingspans of around 3m compared
with a little over 2m)! We had to go back to Deetjens for the forgotten
binos, and on return the eagles had disappeared, but the condor was still there
and I got a fantastic view of this magnificent, very rare bird. Apparently
there are only about 172 of them in the wild, and are being reintroduced to the
Big Sur area by the Ventana Wildlife Society
(see their condor site at: http://www.mycondor.org/ ).
Where we saw this one is around the furthest south they have yet gone (they do
not rate a mention in the 'Local birds of San Luis Obispo County',
which we were soon to enter as we headed south).
When I was in Havana
a couple of weeks later we could not help noticing the large black birds
circling high above the city. They were Turkey Vultures (Aura tiñosa de Cuba).
I took the lift to the top of the 109m Jose Marti Memorial. The views over the
city were great, but so were the close-ups of the birds, perching on the ledges
... see attached.
_______________________
Barbara Preston Research
ABN 18 142 854 599
21 Boobialla Street
O'Connor ACT 2602
Phone: 61 2 6247 8919
Fax: 61 2 6247 8779
Mobile: 0439 47
8919
email:
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