The critically endangered California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) has been through some difficult times. It's believed that at one time thousands of them existed, but since the late 1800's the population went on a steady decline, and before the breeding season in 1983, only 22 remained. The California Condor Recovery Program, established in 1980, helped put a stop to the loss and bring the California Condor back from the brink of extinction.
On Saturday, I joined the LA Audubon on a trip to Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge to see the California Condor and learn about the ongoing recovery efforts headed up by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Jesse Grantham of the USFWS escorted us through the gate and on the randomly-paved roads that wound up and around the mountains of the sanctuary. After a little more than an hour we arrived at an observation point with a wonderful view of the valley below, and the point where California Condors (and Turkey Vultures) were feeding on some stillborn calves dropped there for them the night before.
We were clearly able to watch them feeding with the use of binoculars, but with the heat waves, it was quickly apparent that digiscoping was impossible. After a short time of watching them feed, one of the condors took off and soared past us; we got our first good look at how big these birds really are. With a 9-1/2 foot wingspan, these creatures can easily leave one in awe. It was fascinating watching this enormous kite soar, dipping behind one of the peaks, and then coming back into view, climbing thanks to the thermal boost coming off the mountainside. It did this a few times until it disappeared behind the mountain for good. About a half hour later, a second one took off and did the same thing. I'm not sure which of the two it was, but during one of the flights, Jesse took out the radio antenna and determined that the airborne condor was AC9, the last of the condors to be captured over eighteen years ago. In 2002, after fifteen years in captivity, AC9 was set free and now helps to serve as a mentor to some of the captive-bred birds that have also been released.
During the times of relative inactivity when the condors and vultures were feeding, Jesse answered questions, stated some facts, and recounted some stories. I'm not going into detail here as there's just too much to write, but you can read some of it for yourself on the USFWS website.
About noon, we started packing up our gear and I was beginning to accept the fact that I would have to be satisfied with the distant soaring shots I got earlier in the day. Just then someone cried out "Bird in the air!" and one of the condors had left the feeding horde and taken to the sky, right towards us. As it passed by, I was able to snap off a few shots. It was quite a sight catching the full scale of this bird and seeing the bulge of the bright pink crop that it had filled just moments before. Condor 71 came through for us and made sure we could truly appreciate this magnificent bird.
Correction: I got an email from Mary Freeman of the Los Angeles Audubon Society, who thought the condor pictured was actually Condor 171. An email to Jesse Grantham confirmed this. He added: "This is a female that was released at Big Sur. I believe she's 8 years old this year. She has no mate and travels up and down the coast from Big Sur to Hopper, and back again. We hope she'll meet up with AC2, the 40 year old male we released back into the wild on June 22."
After following a couple of young Costa's Hummingbirds since they were eggs, I returned to Placerita Canyon on Saturday, unsure if they would be there. They have a 20-23 day fledging period and I didn't know how old they were when I first saw them. Saturday marked day 22. I arrived to find them both in the nest. In the week between visits, they had grown quite a bit in size and their beaks were longer. Their feathers also looked more complete and they gained a lot of color. I was only able to spend about 45 minutes in the morning, and all I saw was them sleeping. It was a little windy...I snapped off a few shots with my D70, but it was hard to do any digiscoping.
QuickTime-1:01Since it was so close to fledging time, I figured I'd take another look on Sunday. My friend Chad decided to come along and we got out there around 8:30 in the morning. The day was perfect...
June Gloom was over and there was very little breeze. I expected at least one of the chicks to be gone, but both of them were still there. This time, they were more active and it felt like today was the day they were going to finally venture out on their own. After spending a little over an hour, we got the feeling that they weren't going anywhere immediately, so we decided to explore some areas of the park we hadn't seen before.
QuickTime-0:12After checking out a couple of trails, it was starting to warm up quite a bit, and we figured we'd stop by the nest before heading out. Now the chicks seemed raring to go. Their mother kept coming by, making quick stops and darting off, all the time calling to her chicks as if to encourage them to fly. At one point she landed on the nest to give them a quick meal. She darted back off and they practiced flying a bit. I was able to get some video of one of them practicing, one foot free. It lost its balance, but then recovered. It would have been incredible getting video of a hummingbird as it fledged, but what I
have managed to get has been awesome. Since it was also the outside day of their fledging period, I was able to estimate with some certainty their age when I got the
first photo of them. I figure they were less than a day or two old. Now that's priceless!
Don't miss Part One.
(You must have QuickTime to see the videos. If you don't have it, get it here.)
During our trip to New York, Carol and I spent about twenty hours total in Central Park, and we didn't catch half of what it had to offer. We spent most of our time in the lower half, watching birds in the Ramble and sitting on the benches near the Boat Pond waiting for Pale Male and Lola to show. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were able to get a good look at Lola on our second day there. A couple days after that, we had a short visit by a couple of circling hawks, and figured they were probably Pale Male and Lola, but weren't positive. I'd like to say I saw the hawks that were the reason for my visit to New York in the first place, but I can't. However, there were plenty of other great things I did see and experience that weren't planned.
Midway through our trip, we discovered a Green Heron nest on the west side of the Park. There were three chicks that were getting close to fledging. We watched them for a couple of days and managed to get some shots of them. The lighting was far from optimal, but I ended up with a couple of nice shots.
We had such a great time in New York City. If you haven't already read the previous tales, make sure to check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. I am already looking forward to the next time I'm in NYC. The people were friendlier than I expected, the food was outstanding, the transportation system made everything accessible, and everybody jaywalks! (Try it in Los Angeles and you end up with a ticket.) And If you're ever in New York for whatever time and whatever reason, make sure you have a slice of pizza!
Early Tuesday (June 7) Carol and I took the A Train to Broad Channel and walked to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. We got there around 9:30 am. The main building is under renovation, so they're housing the visitor's center in a trailer. We stopped in and talked to the ranger and got the free permit to walk the trails around the east and west ponds. The ranger expected the walk to take about an hour and a half without stops.
As we entered the trail to the west pond and decided to circle around clockwise. As the trail started out, the path paved its way through the tall bushed and sporadic trees. There was very little breeze, and we immediately experienced something we don't usually in California: mosquitoes. And there were plenty of them...big ones. We'd thought of sun tan lotion, but not bug repellent, so the first couple bites kinda caught me by surprise and as I swatted the first one, I ended up with a big blood splot on my arm. After about five minutes or so, and lots of bites later, the brush opened up, a breeze came in, and the mosquitoes subsided. To the left we saw an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) nest box with one of the parents keeping watch. There were a few Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), American Robins (Turdus migratorius), and a plethora of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor).
About this time, we also caught good looks at some of the shorebirds flying over including new birds for us, the Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), the Lauging Gull (Larus atricilla), and the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo). As we continued along the path, the pond became visible and the variety of birds increased. Among them were ones on our regular list: the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), the Great Egret (Ardea alba), the Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), the Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla, the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), the Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax. New to us were the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), and the Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea).
As we walked around the north side of the pond, we met a couple people walking. They mentioned a turtle who was digging itself into the middle of the trail, possibly to lay eggs. They continued their walk, and we carried on towards the turtle. About a hundred yards, there it was, still digging. I got a few pictures of it and left it alone so it could continue its duties. When we got to the visitor's center, it was about noon. The ranger was out, expecting to be back around 12:30. It was getting pretty hot and humid, so we decided we'd wait until he got back so we could tell him about the turtle in the air-conditioned trailer.
After waiting for about ten minues, the two people we met on the trail made it back. One of them decided to leave a note for the ranger about the turtle and the possible eggs. After talking for a couple minutes we introduced ourselves, as did they: Sue and Debbie...both airline attendants out for a walk on their day off. Debbie offered to drop us off at another park near there, Fort Tilden, and then drop us off at the train. Carol and I decided it was too hot to walk the other pond, and took Debbie up on her offer.
We stopped at the vistor's center at Fort Tilden and Debbie walked in with us. We found that we could drive around the park, so we climbed back in her SUV and continued around the park. We didn't see many birds anywhere. Debbie mentioned that her community of Breezy Point lost a lot firefighters in 9/11 and that they had raised money to build a memorial. She offered to take us there and we graciously accepted. The memorial consists of a wooden walkway with a platform on the end, containing 29 glass etchings for each of the community members lost. Next to it is a cross-shaped piece of steel from the World Trade Center. If you look at it from the corner of the platform, the cross covers the place where the towers once stood. Carol and I had been to Ground Zero a couple days prior, and the memorial personalized the experience even further.
Once we left the memorial, Debbie once again showed her hospitality by treating Carol and I to her favorite Sicilian pizza at L&B Spumoni Gardens. What a delicious slice! She then dropped us off at the D Train so we could get back to Manhattan. Thanks again Stilly!
To be continued...
Back in April, I was invited to join a couple of Los Angeles Audubon members on a bird walk in the walker Ranch area of Placerita Canyon, a county-run park just north of Los Angeles. It's an east-west canyon with a seasonal stream and a variety of trees and bushes. The list for the morning was fairly short, but we saw some of the usual suspects such as the California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis), the Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), the Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii), the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), the Common Raven (Corvus corax), and the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura).
On May 14th I returned, this time on one of the regular monthly walks guided by the San Fernando Valley Audubon. There were more birds present with the addition of migrants and summer inhabitants. What really caught me was the abundance of hummingbirds, such as the Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin), the Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri), and the Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae). As we trailed the pack, one of the group called out that she had spotted a hummingbird nest. Only a few of us heard her as the rest continued on. Only a couple feet from the trail about three feet above the ground sat a female hummingbird on the tiny nest. I was able to snap off a few shots before coninuing on. As we returned about 45 minutes later, she was gone, so I took a quick peek in the nest and saw two little eggs.
Two weeks later, a friend of mine, Chad and I decided to take a walk around Placerita. I had just gotten my digiscoping setup completed and figured this would be a good place to break it in. As we passed by the place where the hummingbird nest was, we noticed that the female was again sitting on the nest. We watched her briefly and then continued on. About an hour later, we returned to find her out and about. Chad took a peek in the nest and didn't really see anything until he bumped one of the branches and up popped two little beaks. At first, I hesitated, kind of in awe of what I was looking at, but Chad quickly reminded me I needed to get a picture of this. I instantly changed to my shorter lens and snapped a couple shots before mom even knew we were there.
The following weekend New York City had my attention, but after returning on this past Thursday, I made another trip out to Placerita Canyon on Saturday morning. This time after going to the nest site, I was greeted by two, much larger chicks, struggling to make themselves comfortable in the now-cramped nest. I got a few shots with my D70 and then my CoolPix digiscoping setup. I decided to try out the movie mode on the camera, getting a minute or so of the chicks resting in the nest. I spent another 15 minutes just observing them in the scope from 12 feet away. It was amazing...I could see all detail including the mites crawling around on their beaks. I heard a couple "pittick" sounds and their mother came in to feed them. I tried to get some stills, but they were moving so fast all I could see in the camera window were blurry shots, so I switched to movie mode. Click on the image on the right to see the resulting QuickTime movie. What a pay-off!
The fledging time for a Costa's Hummingbird is 20-23 days. It's getting close. I'll be there again this weekend, but will they?
Don't miss The Update.
For the past several months, I've been reading an excellent weblog called 10000 Birds. Postings are made on a daily basis during the week, thoughts are eloquently expressed, and bird sightings around the New York City area are highly informational. So before we left for New York, I contacted the author, Mike Bergin, to see if we could arrange a meeting. He was quite generous with his time by suggesting we meet at Inwood Hill Park for some birding. He mentioned seeing a lot of warblers there in May and thought it might be fruitful trip for us NYC newbies. On Sunday afternoon, Carol and I took the 1 train to 215th Street, where Mike picked us up in his car and drove us the short distance to the park.
At first glance, it's not obvious what the park has in store. We saw families picnicking, kids playing, people just generally enjoying the day out. But once we started into the wooded trails, the possibilities became apparent. As the paths ascended, the canopies of the trees that were once above quickly became below viewing level and birds were easier to see without getting too much warbler neck. Unfortunately, we were about a week late for the warblers as they moved on during their Spring migration. However, there were still plenty of birds to see, and we were able to add some new ones to our list such as the Great Crested Flycatcher, the Baltimore Oriole, the Red-bellied Woodpecker, the Blue Jay, the Eastern Towhee, the Tufted Titmouse, the Common Grackle, and the Chimney Swift. Thanks to Mike's guidance and hospitality, we had a successful afternoon birding.
To be continued...
After breakfast Friday morning, Carol and I set out to the east side of Central Park, this time paying attention to the Ramble, a 38-acre woodland where the canopy of the tall trees hides most of the sky. American Robins (Turdus migratorius), European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) were abundant. When we made it to the east side, we spotted Lola sitting on the nest. But not for long. She took off and landed on an antenna on a nearby building. After being harassed by an Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) for a couple minutes, she took off again. This time for good. Pale Male was nowhere to be found.
In the afternoon, we headed to the American Museum of Natural History. They have exceptional permanent displays of birds including the local birds in New York City, North American birds, birds of the world, and oceanic birds. Their temporary dinosaur exhibit is amazing; it lasts until January 2006. Along with the T-Rex skeleton and other assorted bones, they also have one of the most complete specimens ever found in North America...the Bambiraptor. The fossil was found in Montana by a 14-year-old boy and was proven to be a new species. The Bambiraptor belongs to a group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs, which had feathers and hollow bones. Although dromaeosaurs didn't fly, they are believed to be related to modern birds, and the Bambiraptor holds a great similarity to the modern roadrunner.
As we left the museum, a light rain caught us. Even without an umbrella, it was a welcome event as we headed to yet another excellent restuarant for dinner.
To be continued...
Carol and I arrived back in Los Angeles today after having a great time in New York City. It was the first time there for both of us, and it seemed like such a short time. We spent our time sharing the roles of tourist, birder, and vacationer in general, while absorbing the sights, sounds, tastes, and vibes of such an energetic city.
New York's Spring has been cold compared to years past, so I made sure to pack some long-sleeved shirts. I ended up covering my arms only once, as summer quickly set in starting on the second day there.
We took the red-eye out of LAX Wednesday night and landed at JFK around 7:30 Thursday morning, where we met our car to take us into Manhattan. I highly recommend a car/limo service...it's less expensive than a cab and a much better ride. When we arrived at the hotel, it was too early to check in, so we got some breakfast and headed to the east side of Central Park, at the Conservatory Water (Boat Pond) near 74th to see if we could catch a glimpse of Pale Male and Lola, our main reason for visiting NYC.
We weren't able to spot Pale Male or Lola, but we did see a man setting up a spotting scope and a photo display a couple of benches away, so we stopped by to see what was going on. His name is Rik Davis and he's a professional photographer and general watcher of the two hawks. He filled us in on the nesting situation. I've been following palemale.com, a site maintained by Lincoln Karim, but Rik provided a lot of details of the current situation. The clutch of eggs laid in March didn't hatch and Pale Male and Lola eventually gave up on them. There were a few factors that played into this. In December, the coop building decided to remove the nest structure. A couple weeks later, after controversy and protests, a new structure was installed. A short time later, the hawks returned and started rebuilding the nest. Unfortunately, this spring was unusually cold, and since this was a new nest, it wasn't weather-tight as the old one that was built up over ten years. In addition, the new structure allows cold air to pass underneath the nest. Although they gave up on the eggs, they have been seen mating, so maybe there's a chance for a second clutch.
We spent some time talking with Rik and watching for Pale Male and Lola, but they were a no-show so we decided to walk back to the hotel so we could check in and get some much-needed sleep, since we weren't able to catch much on the plane.
That night I had my first encounter with New York City pizza. I'm not going into detail about it here, but if you ever go to NYC, it should be one of the first things you do.
To be continued...
There's a reason for the lack of postings to the website in the last week...I've been away from Los Angeles, on vacation in New York City. In fact, I'll still be here for a few more days. I brought my iBook with every intention of updating the site with at least some Fledglinks, but by the time I get back to the hotel late and after a big dinner, I'm usually too exhausted to do anything but sleep. With an early dinner, tonight is a bit of an exception.
Being in NYC has helped me make a decision I've been debating with myself over the last couple months. When I launched the site, I chose to try an objective route, keeping the personal slant to a minimum to allow for one to make up his or her own mind on a topic. It's been tough to do, especially when the post specifically relates to conservation. From now on, some posts are going to continue the way they have, while others are going to get a more personal touch. When I get back to L.A., there will be a full report of what I've done and the birds I've seen. Stay tuned.
--Jason
