California condor survey field notes, v1477
Page 579
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
California Condor Eben McMillan 10 June 1964 Miles Northwest of Arenal. This young Eagle could possibly have been hit by a car as it fed on some mammal that had been roadkilled but from all appearance, I would judge it to have been shot from the back as it perched on the power pole that stood close-by where it lay. The Tail feathers showed much white. The Carcass could have been there for three months, or more. Driving North of Coalinga, on Highway 33, while still in the foothills but about to emerge out on the flats, I saw an immature Golden Eagle Circling some distance to my West. After Circling briefly this Eagle flew towards, and over me, heading eastward. An adult Golden Eagle was observed near the Cantua Creek bridge as it passed in front of me, then skimmed low over a rise, behind which Atriplex (Poly Carpa) was growing. This Eagle was no doubt, hunting. I drove up Cantua Creek to the Lyle Christie Ranch that is located in the bottom of this creek, the Ranch buildings, that is. It is on this Ranch where Kenneth Mutton had been working last spring when he was supposed to have seen Condor. The Ranch buildings are situated up Cantua Creek about five miles from the Highway 33 turnoff. The Countryside is rolling hills that are deeply scarred with gullies and rock outcrops that, in some instances, run for more than ½ mile, forming slides and cliffs that serve as good nesting and roosting sites for Raven-Barn Owls, Sparrow Hawks, Cliff Swallows, and White Throated Swifts. The Cantua Creek itself, —