Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Gymnogyps californianus
May 7, 1948 Pacific Grove Monterey Co.
at Santa Barbara, Colonel Ballister had a new novel
at a near Cooper Ranch near Isleta, & a condor was
seen (by Streets?) at a carcass, supposedly gorged so that
it could not fly. Streets said he mounted a male weighing
20 lbs., wingspread 9'1", while at Santa Barbara,
that the bird went to CP Rowe the author (?). Streets's
mind is not good & he is very talkative, but in general
he seems accurate in what he remembers. He said
he had published an article once in the Oologist (?) stating that condors were rare (1896±?). I saw
400' of 16 mm. moving pictures that Ed Harrison had
taken in April 1946 (13th+14th?) from a blind atop
the cliffs at Big Cave. These showed an adult
brooding and carrying a feather out of the pool
in its bill. Immatures brooding and playing.
Dark headed immatures playing with orange head
ones. About 15 condors on Whitewash Ridge &
top of the cliff. Walking; flight; takeoff; soaring
from below and above. A very brief
shot - about 1 second - of mating display. Feather
deficiencies in several birds are shown. The
back view of an adult sunning atop Root Tree.
Most of the pictures are clear. Ed has some
kodachrome stills to go with them. These were
taken with lenses up to 20' in focal length.