California Condor.

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Wow, that’s interesting!

I’m aware of another bird, you’ve probably seen it if you’ve been on cruises in the Caribbean, but may not have known what it was. I also saw them a lot in Brazil near the coast. It’s called the magnificent frigatebird. It soars a lot and is able to feed by plucking fish out of the ocean. It actually sleeps while it soars. Unbelievable.
 
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There are quite a few Condors that live in the Marble Canyon Vermillion Cliffs area. Just north on the House Rock ranch road, there is an observation area set up, to observe them being fed. I'm not sure how often this happens, but I saw them at least a couple times over the course of a week long Bighorn Sheep hunt that I was helping on in the area. The crowd that was there watching, VERY MUCH did not like us hunters. A few choice words were said by them towards us, and it was in complete ignorance on their part. Anyways......the Condors are amazing to watch. Arizona Game & Fish department, initiated a copper bullet program on the Kaibab Plateau hunting grounds, because the lead in the bullets, would give the Condors lead poisoning.
 
Lake Bum said:
There are quite a few Condors that live in the Marble Canyon Vermillion Cliffs area. Just north on the House Rock ranch road, there is an observation area set up, to observe them being fed. I'm not sure how often this happens, but I saw them at least a couple times over the course of a week long Bighorn Sheep hunt that I was helping on in the area. The crowd that was there watching, VERY MUCH did not like us hunters. A few choice words were said by them towards us, and it was in complete ignorance on their part. Anyways......the Condors are amazing to watch. Arizona Game & Fish department, initiated a copper bullet program on the Kaibab Plateau hunting grounds, because the lead in the bullets, would give the Condors lead poisoning.
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I get that and I’ve considered it a lot over the years. I’ve bitten down on and probably eaten a lot of lead bb’s from shooting pheasants. I don’t think it’s affected me at all, but maybe that explains why I’m a little bit loopy too. 😂

Lately I’ve been wondering about eating pheasants that grow in crops that are genetically modified to withstand glyphosate or round up. All this time I thought I was eating free range organic “chickens“ that died from lead poisoning, but maybe they contain a lot of glyphosate in their system?

But you gotta die from something so I choose pheasant hunting in South Dakota or catching a 50 pound striper at Lake Powell that pulls me out of my boat, but I don’t let go of the rod. Third would be bacon poisoning.
 
RichieW13 said:
This is pretty cool:

"The California condor's large flight muscles are not anchored by a correspondingly large sternum, which restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. "

en.wikipedia.org

California condor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Loving the education here. Like I said earlier, the lack of effort to out pace us was nothing like I had seen before.
 
Gem Morris said:
Wow, that’s interesting!

I’m aware of another bird, you’ve probably seen it if you’ve been on cruises in the Caribbean, but may not have known what it was. I also saw them a lot in Brazil near the coast. It’s called the magnificent frigatebird. It soars a lot and is able to feed by plucking fish out of the ocean. It actually sleeps while it soars. Unbelievable.
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They are also in the Sea Cortez. I have some photos that I could dig up but that could take awhile.
 
Gem Morris said:
I get that and I’ve considered it a lot over the years. I’ve bitten down on and probably eaten a lot of lead bb’s from shooting pheasants. I don’t think it’s affected me at all, but maybe that explains why I’m a little bit loopy too. 😂

Lately I’ve been wondering about eating pheasants that grow in crops that are genetically modified to withstand glyphosate or round up. All this time I thought I was eating free range organic “chickens“ that died from lead poisoning, but maybe they contain a lot of glyphosate in their system?

But you gotta die from something so I choose pheasant hunting in South Dakota or catching a 50 pound striper at Lake Powell that pulls me out of my boat, but I don’t let go of the rod. Third would be bacon poisoning.
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I'm in that bacon club. Can't imagine life without BACON!😎
 
SeaLegs said:
March 2018. If you look closely you will see the morning dove that it just snagged. The morning dove was still kicking when I took the photo.
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Normally I wouldn't comment on spelling. But since I only just recently learned myself that the birds are called mourning doves, and this thread seems to be a lesson on birds, I figured I'd mention it.

And maybe there is a story behind the name:

"A Huron/Wyandot legend tells of a maiden named Iohara who used to care for the bird, who came to love her a great deal. One day, she became sick and died. As her spirit traveled across the land to the entrance to the Underworld, all the doves followed her and tried to gain entrance into the Underworld alongside her. Sky Woman, the deity who guards this door, refused them entry, eventually creating smoke to blind them and take Iohara's spirit away without their knowledge. The smoke stained their feathers gray and they have been in mourning for the maiden's loss ever since."
 
Gem Morris said:
Years ago after the California Condor reintroduction first began one was seen as far north as Flaming Gorge. It had the identification number affixed to its wing so there was no doubt. I've never seen one at Powell but I have seen them at Lee's Ferry. They perch on the underside of the bridge that crosses the Colorado River there.
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In 2010, when the water was up over 3,650, we were camped on the western most edge of Oak Bay, fishing striper boils off the back of the houseboat. As we cleaned the fish, I carried a bucket up a little rise, maybe 50 feet from the front rail of the boat, and poured out the guts and stuff out for the ravens.

They mobbed the pile, and each time I dumped the next bucket, there were more and more ravens.
Inevitably, a few turkey vultures showed up. By then most of the ravens were full, and the vultures chased away the last of the ravens. I walked up to dump another bucket, and the vultures hopped away, and returned as I walked down to the boat. I looked back and there was an immature California Condor feeding with the vultures. The neck was still fully feathered, but it had a numbered tag on one wing. My wife was napping, and she did not believe me when I said "There's a condor on the beach", but she dragged herself out to humor me.

She checked it out for about a minute when a coyote ran up and scattered the birds. As the big bird pumped its wings to get airborne, she saw the number. Neither one of us got a picture, but there is no doubt it was a condor. Nobody tags turkey vultures.
 
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