California Condor field notes, v1401
Page 393
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
33/2 Gymnogyps californianus May 28, 1947 Berkeley, Calif. "Keyoke" of a mountain quail. Willmann said condor sometimes flew back & forth in small valleys as if having difficulty in getting out. Some must have had a wingspread of 20 ft., he said. Once he saw a go bald eagle on the ground under a tree & a condor diving at it; the eagle left & the condor landed under the tree. The Willmann threw stones at the condor & drove it off. The carcass there was a coyote with a small hole in its side, heart & lungs pulled out through the hole. In 1928, Willmann said, he saw 2 condors near the west side of San Rafael Mts.. With his mother, about 1941, in Sept. or Oct., he was driving near Jenner when they saw 2 condors — no doubt, he said — both he & his mother knew condors. He also saw 2 on Mt. Diablo in April about 1938, he said. The Wheats had a pet condor near What Peak about 1902. Willmann undoubtedly knows condors & was well versed in the Sonoma country. His observations were not too accurate, however, so I doubt his Jenner & Diablo observations. Stock was grazed in the lower Sonoma & Santa Cruz in the old days, & up into the heads of the canyons in dry years. Robert