Blue Monday

Today's Monday meeting was bittersweet. We lost two of our birds over the weekend, one--who had been in treatment at the LA Zoo for lead poisoning, and the other of unknown causes. The latter situation was particularly dire because that condor was half of a nesting pair. Whose nest we hadn't found yet. Condor parents share incubating and brooding duties, switching out of the nest every few days to give the other parent leave to go foraging for food. This bird's mate had been sitting on his nest for a long time--too long without food, and without our knowing the location of the nest, we couldn't potentially retrieve the chick to then raise it in captivity. A hurried search would have to be mounted this week for the nest.

That was the sad news. However, the dark cloud that had shrouded most of the meeting began to disperse a little with the announcement of two new nests discovered, both unusually late in the nesting period, and therefore an unexpected surprise. The good news continued to tip the scale into the positive when, at lunch, we received a call from James up at Hopper telling us that 452, a bird who had been missing for over three months and was presumed dead, had shown up at the feeding site. One can only imagine where that bird has been (touring Wine Country perhaps? Checking out the Golden Gate Bridge? Cruising up to Yosemite? Hollywood Star Tour?)

With lunch finished, I was off to Hopper for this hitch.

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Rest in peace, pretty lady.