On Sunday, October 20, at about 2:50pm Condors Y-194 & OR-208 passed
directly over the Lookout on their way to the Southeast. Tracking
had been slow Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. The only bird we
were picking up for the past two days was Y-194 possibly flying
somewhere east of the Santa Lucias maybe over the Paso
Robles/Atascadero area. When we went to check signals at about 2:30
Sunday afternoon we picked up Y-194 strong and wide. The signal was
coming from all directions and even a walk around the perimeter of
the lookout couldn’t narrow down the direction of the bird. My chest
started pounding and at first I couldn’t believe it. This bird was
right on top of us! I thought either me or the telonix was
malfunctioning, for it was just an hour ago that we last took signals
and weren’t picking up any birds. But there was no malfunction and I
alerted the Cal Poly crew to start searching the skies. Lisa
Andreano, Paul’s sister, was on the spotting scope and within minutes
located the bird heading for us soaring just North of the lookout.
The bird continued to soar a few hundred feet above the lookout for a
few minutues checking the area out and watching us watch it. Quickly
it then began heading east over Trout Creek and then Stoney Creek in
the direction of Branch Mountain. It was very hazy and just as we
lost visual contact with Y-194, OR-208 flew by the east side of the
lookout at nearly eye level on a heading south over Hi Valley. From
there it moved East possibly over Pine Ridge, and then off towards
the Branch Mountain/Cuyama Valley area. I eventually lost 194s
signal, but continued to get 208 on into Sunday night and Monday
morning. Maybe 208 spent the night somewhere in the mountains
surrounding Cuyama Valley. The wind, unlike the few days prior, was
steady out of the NNE Satuday night and all day Sunday. I wonder if
it was a factor in the birds decision to make the long trip South,
and if the steady North wind pushed them South over the lookout
instead of what usually seems to be their normal route over the East
side of the La Panza’s.

Mike