Rare and Endangered, the California Condors of Pinnacles National Park
California Condors hold a special allure for me. When I first was getting into natural history and bought my first field guide, The Complete Field Guide to North American Wildlife, they immediately piqued my interest. With a wingspan of almost 10 feet, they're massive. They make hawks and even eagles and turkey vultures look diminutive in comparison.
They're also rare and endangered with only 350 left in the wild which is, however, a dramatic improvement from the 10 wild birds that remained at their low point in 1984. As a kid growing up, they were almost mythical. California, the American West, were just a dream to me in my youth and seeing these birds soar over the desert skies was part of that dream. It was a dream, just a a dream, that had alluded me for decades until now.
One of the nine California Condors I saw at Pinnacles National Park on the High Peak Trail. It was a day with condors. A day to remember!
Fast forward now decades later, I still had never seen a California Condor, so when my sister, Julie, offered to introduce me to a friend of hers and professional conservation photographer, Joshua Asel, who had been working with condors, I jumped at the chance to meet him. After a Zoom call with Joshua, we laid out plans to go hiking and visit the condors of Pinnacles National Park. It was great meeting Joshua and having him share the condors that he loves and had worked with. Just a chance to see these birds in their native habitat as well as spend some time with someone making their career as a professional conservation photographer was a special treat. Thank you Joshua!
We started the day early. Condors soar on the thermals and need wind to take off. They roost for the night and the first few hours of light until the heat of the day starts to build and the updrafts on the mountains that they call home begin to build. We hiked the High Peaks trail at Pinnacle National Park in the pre-dawn light to try to get to the top by dawn. We were a bit late to observe dawn from the top, but as we got close to the top were immediately greeted with condors.
View from the High Peaks Trail in Pinnacles National Park. This is one of the places California Condors still call home.
They were roosting in trees and along the cliffs. We estimated that we saw 9 different condors. Its pretty easy to tell them apart as they're virtually all tagged and equipped with big numbers and GPS trackers. Nine different individuals represents about 9% of California's total population and 2.5% of the 350 or so condors currently in the wild.
Here, Green 26, fully outfitted with tags and GPS antennae gets ready for take-off.
Here a juvenile condor, who won't get the identifying pinkish orange head for a few years until it reaches adolescence, peers over a rock behind us. We were photographing another juvenile in a tree and were rather started to find a condor behind us looking down on us from a rock above.
This condor was the only untagged one we saw. This juvenile has yet to be captured and tagged by the biologists monitoring their population.
The condor, Green 26, soaring the skies above the High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Park.
By 9:30am the condors were gone. They rode the thermals up, spiraling higher and higher, and then they were off to search for food for the day. We wanted to stay till sunset to see them come back so we had a lot of time to kill, to chat and to rest while we waited for their return.
I'm not happy with the photo above, but its the best one for drawing a comparison. Here a Turkey Vulture soars near one of the California Condors and you really see the difference in size.
Around 4:30pm the first condors began to return. I found them rather maddening to try and photograph while on the wing. Managing focus and lighting was challenging but a great experience for me.
Here, Joshua waits atop a rock, scanning the skies for the next condor to return.
Having an opportunity to spend a day in a new National Park for me and a day with the condors was quite the memorable experience. Thank you Joshua for agreeing to show me the condors you love and to my sister Julie for the introduction!