California condor

In the 1950s, my friends and I occasionally hiked and hunted in the Los Padres National Forest, most often along Mutau Flat Road, just northwest of the Sespe Condor Reserve. The possibility of seeing a condor made that my favorite spot-- but we did not see condors. My first wild condor sighting was forty years later, in Chilean Patagonia. There, near Torres del Paine, I spotted a pair on a low ledge. The free, but tame bird in this picture, however, was perched on the guard rail of CA State Highway 1, just south of Big Sur. Photographing it required me to back up far enough to fit its image into the frame of my camera. When I finished, the docent on duty shouted and waved his arms at the bird-- sending it on its way to a nearby tree, safely away from the automobile traffic. Not a tick, but I admire that face.

Last updated 12/07/10