Check out my illustration in this month’s issue of The Wildlife Professional! This was done for an essay by Bob Wilkerson and Rodney Siegel which discusses the absolutely crucial role that giant sequoias play in the lives of wildlife – including providing nest sites for the endangered California Condor.
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/686269109609103360.
Oh yeah! Are these the Grand Canyon condors?
Actually, I can answer that myself thanks to the wing tags and the Internet. Yeah, they’re all in the Arizona population.
T7 – A male that hatched on June 13, 2016
44 – A female that hatched on June 4, 2016
R8 – A male that hatched on April 29, 2015
Can’t quite make out the tag on the last one. Looks like it ends in a 5, but there are several possibilities there.
That is so cool.
https://science.peregrinefund.org/condor-list
Status of Individual California Condors | Conservation Science
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/632834292177895424.
It’s the opposite hillside, about a mile and a half away. I wanted to show you the context, so I went to Google Street View (naturally). Here’s where I parked for my last-ditch attempt to see a condor:
Just for funsies, though, let’s pan around and look down the road in the Street View image from that spot:
Huh. There’s a dark speck in the sky up there.
The Street View car was driving in that direction; let’s continue down the road and see if we can get a better view:
It’s a big soaring bird. It’s not a Red-tail, not a TUVU, doesn’t look right for an eagle… At this point just by the process of elimination there aren’t many choices left.
Well okay then. That flight silhouette pretty much nails it.
The Google Street View car drove past a California Condor.
At this point the bird was circling north as the Street View car continued south. I figured that was probably going to be the best shot, but kept “driving” while following the bird, now behind the car, and wouldn’t you know it, the bird circled back along the road, now following the car:
I think the Street View car slowed down, either for the upcoming curve or maybe because they noticed the bird? No way to tell, but check it out:
Even if they weren’t aware of it before, I bet the shadow of a 9-foot wingspan going right past them caught their attention.
If you zoom in you can even see the white wing linings:
I vaguely remembered hearing about Street View birders, so I googled and found an article where Sarah Toner talked about the FB group where they share sightings. She mentioned that her favorite find was a California Condor, basically right by where she’d seen the bird IRL. I didn’t try to verify because #NeverFacebook, but I have to think this is the bird she was talking about.
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/190398775036.
