Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
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Transcription
California condor
Eben McMillian
9 September 1963
To the south Circling as it went and passed from
sight behind the southern horizon.
Single Condor Came and went from time to time throughout the
afternoon. At 2:30 p.m., Ian and I took the Farnsworth Jeep
and drove up canyon back of ranch buildings. A lone
Condor was sighted perched in top of a dead pine on top of
ridge one quarter mile west of bent pine—we drove to water tank on
top of ridge south of Farnsworth ranch buildings. A lone
Condor was seen circling above bent pine. The
Greenhorn Mountain Complex that lays about five or six
miles southeast and east of the Farnsworth Ranch could
be seen plainly from the top of a hill south of the water
tank that sets atop the ridge one mile south of the
Farnsworth home. Large coniferous trees can be seen along
the top of the Greenhorn Mountain and areas could be seen
throughout this range where outcroppings of granite
offered suitable nesting locations for Condor. Even though
few sight records of Condor have come from the Greenhorn
Mountain proper, I nevertheless feel this mountain chain is
used as a roosting area; and possibly as a nesting
site, on occasion. This Greenhorn summit would be two
to three thousand feet higher than the Glenville area where the
Farnsworths have their ranch.
At 3:30 p.m., a lone Condor came from the Southeast and
circled high above the Canyon where the dead Gowa Carcasses lay.
This bird soon moved on out northeast-ward. Buzzards came
out in numbers about 4:00 p.m. and seemed to be interested
mostly just in flying. I doubt that any birds fed at the
Gowa Carcasses since 8:00 A.M. today.
At 4:45 p.m., three Swainsons hawk were observed
circling high above the upper reaches of the Canyon in which
the Carcasses were. All three of these hawks were of the
medium color phase that shows a white pattern under—