I was up at sunrise to head out to the wooden blind perched above the feeding site. With the exception of the birds who had flown overhead two days earlier, this was the closest I'd been to the condors yet, and now I was actually able to distinguish color tags.
Studbook # Tag Color
1 - 99 Orange
100 - 199 Red
200 - 299 Yellow
300-399 Blue
400 - 499 White
500 - 599 Black
Geoff left late morning to pick up a condor from the Los Angeles Zoo who had been treated for lead poisoning. I was left alone. I ended up seeing some pretty cool stuff: a couple courtship displays, some wing-begging, a possible new mating pair, a golden eagle. All in all, a good day.
This pair arrived and left the feeding site together. True love? Or just friends?
At first the condors seem hesitant to try the half-a-bear. At last, one decides to give it a shot.
A golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) drops in for a free lunch. The condors know to back off -- they're no match for an eagle's killing claws. In addition to carrying off one of the rabbit carcasses, the golden kept swooping low over the condors and knocking them on the heads. In other news, golden eagles are kind of assholes.
Little 560 is a total daddy's girl -- first she went up to Mom and started begging for food. Mom was all "No way, baby." So 560 went over to Dad, wing-begging and looking adorable, and Dad was more than happy to oblige.
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