   | Back in 1996, I had the good fortune to meet Dr Noel and Helen Snyder, two of the biologists who started the California Condor captive breeding program. I was able to visit with Dr Dave Clendenan as well, and all pointed me to the site of the initial release of juvenile condors, which had been raised in captivity. The site was the Los Padres National Forest. I feel honored to have met these folks, truly the saviors of this species. I also feel fortunate to have seen some of the early individuals of the captive breeding program, back in the wild where they belong: 10 June 1996 Saw 4 juvies last evening and this AM: W3, Y25, R12, and one we couldn't ID. This morning we saw them perched in trees to the north of the feeding station....The birds are HUGE. These are all juvies so they're all fairly dark, including their heads. Their primaries are about 2 ft long (saw one at Dave Clendenan's office). The birds are about 47 inches from head to tail and have a 9 to 10 ft wingspan. When they were perched on the rock, they were in the sun and spent their time preening themselves. Once actually laid down and looked to be just sunning itself. They mostly left eachother alone. At one point R12 walked up to W3 and they started batting heads and necks together. This lasted for about 1 minute and then they went back to minding their own business. Shortly thereafter the fourth one flew by and one by one the other three flew away. They circled over us for a bit, taking turns (apparently) investigating us. I suspect they thought I was a carcass as I was laying down on an exposed rock while observing them. They swooshed over me a few times about 20 ft over my head and I could hear the sound of the wind over their wings!.. I was really impressed with their sheer size...also by the way the sunlight gints off their feathers (Helen Snyder describes it like the sun glinting off a newly waxed car). The birds also have some iridescence in their wingfeathers and back (not as much as a raven or a crow however)... The Condors tend to perch in trees or rocks in the morning until the air and earth's surface heats up enough to create updrafts or thermals. It's only when the thermals develop that they can soar... |