Condor news (6/28/14)

Condor Watch photo highlights

When you look through Talk at all the beautiful, interesting, funny, and unusual photos, and the astute and humorous comments of our Condor Watchers, it’s almost impossible to select just a few highlights.  We could have picked 100.  In the interest of not overwhelming you all, here are just a few.

• Here’s an image tagged by wreness capturing the impressive wingspan of 332. http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW00042x1

• oldhitchhiker2 gave these birds kudos for their cheerleader formation. Great diversity of tag patterns too! http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0003zeb

• Canmore1919 spotted a condor conga line starting up.  http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW00015zg

• It’s the Luis Suarez of the condor world, caught in the act of chomping on a conspecific. Red card! Photo was tagged by wreness. http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0004ok0

• And here’s an excellent view of unusual tag A4, which looks confoundingly like 44, reported by miltonbosch. As wreness would say, Bravo, you win a fish!

It’s always fun to see some of the other charismatic fauna that frequent the feeding stations.

• Here’s a gorgeous golden eagle shot spotted by colin_2.  http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0003n3g

• And this big-pawed black bear tagged by bliedtke and others. http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0002313

• And this simply awesome big cat tagged by mendocinosunrise. http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0002z23

• And finally, we know there’s still a lot of raven animosity out there, but wreness tagged this winsome “raven with tutu” photo, which makes us smile. http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW000143j

Condor news and views from around the web:

• Mike Clark, LA Zoo’s condor keeper, shared this delightful video of a condor pool party. Unfortunately, the of the main reasons wild condors end up in the zoo is treatment for lead poisoning: http://goo.gl/xfyPEv

• This radio piece features an interview with the Yurok tribe about the proposal to release condors on the North Coast in California. “They haven’t really been seen in this area for 100 years,”says Tiana Williams, a biologist and Yurok tribal member, “but they figure heavily in our stories and feature heavily in our world renewal ceremonies.”  http://radio.krcb.org/post/groups-seek-return-condors-north-coast

• And all on their own, California condors are slowly expanding their range. A three-year-old female condor, 597 (Black 97), caused a stir recently when she was caught on a private land owner’s wildlife camera in San Mateo county. This was the first condor sighting this far north since 1904. http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25959192/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since. And in early June, came the arrival of the first condor to hatch in the wild in Utah since condors were reintroduced in 1996. We have not heard an update on the status of this chick since then. http://kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/rare-california-condor-chick-hatches-utah-11747.shtml

• Several different video clips have been posted recently of action at feeding stations and elsewhere that we miss in our photo stills. Not for the squeamish, here a condor eats a very gloopy calf lung, courtesy of Hunting with Non-lead Bullets: http://goo.gl/UHpdvj   And while it doesn’t always work out this way, here’s a clip of a condor chasing an eagle from a carcass, also from Hunting with Non-lead Bullets: http://goo.gl/32iquH

• Condors sometimes are lured into dangerous situations by road kill. Here a tourist filmed a condor causing a traffic jam on the highway in the Big Sur area. It’s Yellow8, aka 208, a female hatched in 1999:  http://goo.gl/1RqZeR

• US Fish and Wildlife Service posted a clip of a 60-day old chick dancing the hokey pokey in its nest cave: http://goo.gl/j8BtcE

• Finally, we’ll leave off on some sad notes, the ones that for now always play in the background as we work for the future of condors. First, here’s a heart-breaking video of condor 401, in the final throes of lead poisoning. This guy hatched in 2006 and had been treated at least 5 times for lead poisoning. RIP 401 — you shouldn’t have had to endure this. http://goo.gl/fbVXm6

• And a photo of what the sand looks like after being traversed by a lead poisoned condor. The Peregrine Fund offers this description: When a California Condor suffers from severe lead-poisoning, the digestive system paralyzes, unable to pass food or water through the system. The bird is hungry, losing weight, dehydrated, and continues to forage and feed, despite the distended crop full of rotting meat. It will continue to pack food in, because despite the greater than 3lbs of food it possesses in the crop, it feels starved and becomes anemic. This condition, we call crop-stasis, is usually the last telling sign that the bird is withering away, and it will not be long before it dies. When a 13-yr-old male condor spends days on a beach next to the river, withering away, unable to fly, and barely able to walk, dragging his wings in the sand cause his strength can no longer hold them up, but he continues to saunter the 20ft to the river to drink water, it looks like this… http://goo.gl/MrJJQJ
  

Upcoming events:

Anyone living near southern California can attend a free screening of A Condor’s Shadow and meet Dolly, a 3-year old condor at An Evening With Condors and Friends – July 18th 7-9:30PM @Ojai, CA Libbey Bowl

http://www.thecondorsshadow.com/friends/index.html