Hi everybody. I just wanted to let you know that the Washington office of
the Forest Service recognized the Hi Mountain Lookout Project as an
excellent example of the Naturewatch program, and gave us some good press.
I was happily surprised at our regional meeting with the award. I plan to
piggyback on this and use the exposure to help obtain some funding.
Seems like every time we get the word out, we get recognized. Good Work!
I’ll be at the lookout next weekend for the work day. Hope to see you
there.
Kevin Cooper, Forest Service Biologist.
I spent a couple of pleasant days up at the lookout this week and was
rewarded with signals from two Pinnacles National Monument condors:
Bk 265 and Bk 287. I don’t know if these two birds just have stronger
transmitters or if they are up and about more than the other 4 birds,
but I’ve picked up at least one of them the last three times I’ve
monitored from the lookout.
As was reported by Steve Schubert, two Condors were SIGHTED from the
lookout last week. They were W231, a four year old female and B168, a
seven year old male. W231 is the same bird that I sighted from the
lookout Oct 1, 2003, which causes me to speculate that they MIGHT be
checking out Huff’s Hole for a future nesting sight. W231 probably
hasn’t reached sexual maturity yet (usually 5 or 6 years of age), but
she’s close!
Keep your eyes peeled for huge black birds with white triangles under
the leading edge of their wings!
‘Til next time,
Kathleen
Last Friday, 2/6, USFS wildlife biologists Kevin Cooper and Tom Murphey
were working on improvements at Hi Mountain Lookout, joined by several
Cal Poly students staffing the lookout. They had a sighting of two
condors ‘chasing’ each other over the Huff’s Hole cliffs below, then
continuing on and perching in a tree near one of the large rock outcrops
to the east of Hi Valley Rock. Kevin got the telonics out to take a
radio tracking reading and was able to identify the two white-tagged
condors as a 7 year old male and a 4 1/2 year old female. A condor was
also seen from Hi Mountain as recently as last November. Last nesting
activity of condors at Huff’s Hole was in the early 1970’s.
Steve Schubert
