[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: California Condors



Earlier this month, on June 1, my wife and I saw three
condors at close range at Point Imperial on the north
rim of the Grand Canyon. 

That's about 30-40 miles from the Vermillion Cliffs,
where they were released, but we heard that the
condors have been showing up pretty regularly on both
the north and south rims and along the river, which
park offials are trying to discourage. Officials are
trying to haze the birds (without harming them) so
they develop a healthy fear of humans and stay away
from areas where people congregate.

The birds we saw were all juveniles, with black heads,
and they were BIG birds. They all had the large
numbered tags on their  wings and circled about 40-50
feet over Point Imperial for a couple of minutes
before sailing off to the north. (They covered an
incredible distance in a very short time.) We watch
one alight in a tree on a ridge a couple miles away;
we could still see it without our binoculars.

Interestingly, one park ranger told me he thinks
condors are a relict of the time when megafauna like
mammoths and giant sloths roamed North America (which
is probably true), and that we're investing too much
of an effort in delaying their inevitable extinction.
After all, he said, they're pretty stupid birds that
have been hard to keep alive out in the wild. (One was
eaten by a coyote, apparently).

That was definitely unfortunate to hear from a park
ranger...

At any rate, the experience was one of the highlights
of my birding career.

Kevin Potter
Panther Branch Township
Wake County, North Carolina


--- Malcolm and Joan Macdonald <mjmacd@citcom.net>
wrote:
> >By the way, a friend in CA told me that condors
> have been released in the
> >Grand Canyon.  Is this true?  Where are other
> release sites outside of CA,
> >if any?  What a sight that would be!  Has anyone in
> this group seen a
> >condor?
> 
> On April 24,1997 we were fortunate to see a
> California Condor at Vermillion
> Cliffs, AZ , very near the first release site which
> is not too far from the
> Grand Canyon.   I don't remember how many were in
> the first group but know
> a few have been killed.  I think I read one was
> picked off by a Golden
> Eagle.  I believe there has been more releases since
> then.
> 
> Joan Macdonald
> Brevard, NC
> 
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/