California Condor Eban McMullian 16 June 1963 Warm throughout the night-Smog blancketing the San Joaquin valley below us as we left camp at 6:45 A.M. driving Towards Arvin. High grasses cover all open hills and flats on West side of Tabachapi mountains. We passed up at a station in Arvin that was operated by a fellow who had lived in this area for 16 years and knew less of the Country than one would have thought possible for a person living in an area that length of time. He had never heard of Condor. We drove south and entered Canyon leading up to Old Tejon Ranch Headquarters. A Mr. Joe Brown, of Arvin, who attends to the oil pumps of Standard Oil Co. in the Tejon Hills field was digging at the side of the road. We stopped and talked with him-He knows Condors. He remembered seeing one hanging on a fence, that someone had shot, to the East of Arvin some years ago. We said he had turned the incident into Fish and Game Officials, who he thought did close about it for his ideas concerning the integrity of Public Officials, in general, was not good. He thought one could kill anything along the roads in the Arvin district and not be bothered by Fish and Game Wardens. Mr. Brown, about 10 years ago had seen 17 Condors in the general area of the mouth of Tunis Canyon on Tejon Ranch. He has not seen Condor for several years. We drove to home of Walter Fieguth who lives on the Tejon Ranch property and is one of the many foremen on the Tejon Ranch. Mr. Fieguth was raised in the Templeton area and had worked with Ian harvesting some 26 years ago in the Shandon area. Fieguth knows Condors and claimed to have seen 55 birds Condor in one flock as they flew into the air from the Carcass of a dead cow on which they had been feeding-in the area near the mouth of Tunis Canyon on Tejon Ranch, some 10 years ago. Mr. Fieguth could not remember the exact year he saw these birds.