California Condor
A typical spring morning; warm, damp, calm and
Clear. The rain of march 27th, which gave an inch
of precipitation to this area did not produce so
well in the bitterwater valley, nor in the Blackwells
corner, Lost Hills area. Good rains fell east of
the drainage slough, to the east of Lost Hills.
Having heard of an airplane being forced down,
with loss of life to its two occupants, when it
collided with a large bird in the Granite Station
area to the North and East of Bakersfield, and
hearing, on the radio, that the bird was thought
to be a Buzzard, I stopped and phoned the
Sheriff in Bakersfield, as I passed by
Famoso, on my way to Sheep Pastures East of
Famosa. After several phone calls that gave no
positive identification of this bird, I drove to
the Airport in Bakersfield, where the Director
of Civil Aeronautics Administration, Mr.
Clyde Boughton, who had been conducting the investigation
into the above mentioned airplane accident, sent me to
the Hornkohl Laboratory, in Bakersfield, to look at and
identify the bird in question, that to me, had been
referred to as a Goose, a Buzzard, and a
Cormorant. It turned out to be a Common
Loon in full adult plumage, weighing 7.9 pounds
and being in remarkably good condition after
meeting up with and downing, an airplane. The lower
mandible was broken off about 3/4 of the length in
towards base and a deep gash had opened the
left side and breast. The left Testes was found even
though much damage was evident in the stomach
cavity. This testis was not measured, it appeared to
be more than 3/8 of an inch long.
over