The birds were quiet on Tuesday but with the hot weather and
favorable flying conditions the condors were quite active on
Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon b167, r260, r251, and
w231 were all being picked up on the telonix in north county at their
usual bearing of 315 degrees nw somewhere on the east slope of the
Santa Lucias. Also picked up or204 to the south around cuyama
valley. By 5pm w231 had made the flight down to the branch mountain
area and I had signals for this bird until 7:18pm meaning this bird
did not go all the way down to Hopper Mtn. and instead may have spent
the night in the Lion Canyon area of the Sierra Madre’s. Sure enough
Thursday morning at 9:45 I picked the bird up again and by 10:30 the
signal had faded out completely as the bird continued its flight
south to Hopper NWR. Two other Ventana birds decided to make the
flight Thursday and now over half the Ventana flock is down south.
Thursday was the hottest day at the lookout so far this year with a
high of 93 with the night before’s temperature only dipping down to
72. John, one of the local ranchers who lives down in Pozo came up
and he shared some great stories of bear and mountain lion encounters
in the area. Aparently his dog can hunt and has treed plenty of big
cats in the past but lately he has not see any. I informed him of
the lion scratches down by hi valley rock.
Mike
Well, we didn’t have any Condors on Friday (6/20) or Sat (6/21) but at about
4pm on Sunday (6/22) we picked up signals from R260 and B167 out near
Atascadero. The signals only lasted for about 20 min. and we had no visuals.
Other than that, the weather was wonderful–sunny skies and a slight breeze.
We had few visitors — a handful of mountain bikers, a family and another
couple–but we did spot both a bobcat (out on the ridge road) and a grey fox
(inside the gate). We also had a few Ash-throated Flycatchers around, and
heard an ear full from the Bewick’s wren.
Hope we see up on the Mountain!
Lisa A.
Monday, June 16, 2003…Finally heard from three Condors: W231, a
three year old Female; B167, a 6 year old Female; and R260, I think
must be a newly released one or two year old Condor (no other
information available). W231 and B167 may have flown over the Cuesta
Grade area to Atascadero area and spent most of the day north of the
lookout there. By 4:30 p.m. the signals were lost, so they may have
gone back to the Ventana area. We ((Joan Carter, Matt Willis (a
resent Cal Poly graduate) and I))only picked up signals from R260 a
couple of times, so don’t know if this young bird was alone or with
the other two…?
We had a visit from Letty French and her two friends from Indiana in
the morning, luckily while the weather at the lookout was still
pleasantly warm and semi bug free. As the day progressed, so did the
heat and the bug count. You may be noticing a theme here…summer
time at the lookout is a gnatcatcher’s and swallow’s dream!
We saw a Great Horned Owl near the last ranch house before the climb
up the mountain. It was sitting there in the morning and still there
in the afternoon when we left. Matt said he saw several Tule Elk in
the same general area when he drove up in the morning.
Bye ’til next time,
Kathleen
Today, 6/14, I drove up with my parents-visiting from Oregon- and my
brother for their first visit to Hi Mtn. Lookout. Mike Stiles was also
there to take a look at all the work that has been done. Just as we
stepped outside from the visitor’s center downstairs an adult pair of
peregrine falcons flew by 50 yards away at eye level- a nice greeting
from the Huff’s Hole falcons, I presume. A few more seconds lingered
indoors and we would have missed them completely.
The butterflies are numerous around the lookout (so are the flies, so it
helped a light breeze was blowing today) and there are many
swallowtails, blues, and checkerspots flying about and ‘hilltopping”. I
saw several blues feeding at yerba santa flowers along Hi Mtn. road on
the stretch between the gate and the lookout, and deerweed and woolly
blue curls shrubs are also flowering in abundance roadside. Wild mustard
appears to be the more abundant ‘weed’ in the disturbed roadside border
this growing season compared to the yellow-star thistle invasion there
one year ago (perhaps those eradication efforts last summer helped to
prevent some reseeding of the thistle). The very small flowers of a
coffeeberry shrub growing near the water cistern were being visited by
numerous honeybees. It was a buggy kind of day.
Steve Schubert
The Condors have not been visiting our area for a couple of weeks
now. The weather has probably been too cool for their liking. I have
to agree with them…it never got above 50 degrees yesterday, Wed.
June 11, and the cloud that was BELOW the lookout last week decided
to rise a couple 100 feet and shroud Hi Mountain with a very chilly
fog this week.
Those of us who are staffing the lookout (Cal Poly Interns and
volunteers like myself) have new schedules and I will be reporting
for duty on Mondays from now on. There will be people at the lookout
seven days a week now and visitors are always welcome! So ’til next
Monday…
Bye for now,
Kathleen
