California Condor: Eben McMillan 28 October 1963 Smooth molded, but steep hills, are overlaid with deep, dark, rich, soil that shows little signs of erosion, and most of this seeming to have occurred since roads have been pushed into this area. A ground cover of tall, dry, grasses, is protecting this area now from water erosion. Within this cover, great numbers of animals must abide, for predatory birds could be seen all along the route I traveled, Golden Eagle, Red Tailed Hawk, Sparrow Hawk, Marsh Hawk and Burrowing Owls, as well as fantastic numbers of meadowlark, Larksparrow and some Vesper Sparrow. One flock of approximately five hundred Pine Siskin fed on the tall stalks of a Stephanomeria (Sp), that grows profusely on the North slopes of these ranges. I saw coyote scats on several occasions, but was not able to observe any mammal predators here, even though a good population of California Ground Squirrels inhabit this area. Wherever the ground cover is broken, the burrows of Kangaroo Rats are to be seen. It was quite warm at midday even at the four to five thousand foot elevation, where I had my lunch. Returning to the foothills, and the flat country, at 3:00 P.M. I then drove up the ridge between Pleito Creek and Salt Creek to the east of Ranch headquarters. An oil field road traverses this ridge up from the bottom to where an oil field is in operation about two miles from the foot of the grade. Many graded dirt roads traverse this ridge that is less steep in contour than the San Emigdio-Pleito Creek Ridge, and the soil here is as rich and dark as any I have seen in upland California areas. Wild animals were well represented here. I was surprised to see so many Horned Larks here where tall grasses cover the ground in most places. Smog limited visibility here throughout the day to three to four miles distance at the lower elevations and dimmed distance scenes even at 5500 feet.