California Condor Eben Macmillan 13 November 1963 A storm was in the making as I drove to Cantil, via Tehachapi, and clouds were gathering in the higher mountains- light showers fell as I drove up the Tehachapi grade. a ground fog covered the lower 100 feet of the San Joaquin valley, and above that, a Smog condition prevailed up to the 3500 foot elevation. The Tehachapi Mountains were clear- The desert had smog or haze at the lower elevations. I visited the sheep lambing grounds of M. t R. Sheeps Company at Cantil, in Kern County, but saw only Raven and a lone Red-Tailed hawk. No soaring birds seen. In the Cl Paso Mountains I watched a Red-Tailed hawk moving southward at fairly high altitude. Strong cross winds and unstable air was causing this hawk to tack and weave its way along slowly in passing the points, in Iron Canyon, that is about six miles north of Gurlock, Kern County, California. From watching birds in flight, over this desert area, I would think that any large bird would, were it acquainted with conditions in the areas, steer clear of the east slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains at the time when foul weather would be brewing. Strong, gusty, and turbulent winds are a characteristic of this country during stormy weather. At 8:30 a.m. as I drove down the Bitterwater Valley from home- 40 plus Curlew fly up from a Flat on the east side of the road about 5 miles below the Standard Oil Company Pumping Station in the Bitterwater Valley and fly across the road in front of me, then scatter and appear to alight in a barren field about one-half mile west of the road. This field from whence they flew up from and the one they appeared to alight in are a bare of any vegetation having been badly overgrazed during last Spring,