Condor Watch Talk

is there a complete list

  • MistyArt by MistyArt

    is there a complete list somewhere of all the condors - tags - and other info. Like what we get in the bios?
    Also : where are these photos taken? I'm on the hunt for a condor sighting throughout Pinnacles National Forest and Big Sur, here in California, and I am just curious the odds of seeing the tags we see so frequently here.

    Thanks ❤️

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Hi!

    There's a master list of all births/years/tags/release dates/tag changes/deaths/mates/offspring/lead poisoning frequency and other information, called a "Studbook", and which is kept by the managers of the sites that monitor condors. The lower the tag number, the older the bird and as you know the color of the tag matters, too - Red, Orange and Yellow are the oldest birds, as is Blue. (Purple and Green are the newest kids on the block)

    The photos are taken at hundreds of sites (which are kept secret to protect the condors from people wanting to harm them - some have been purposely shot with lead), some which are on private land.

    There are 3 main Flocks - "Southern California"; "Pinnacles" and "Ventana"

    The Ventana Wildlife Society (the site with the cage) actually has tours you can sign up for and also a Live Feeding cam online (Black 50 & White 18 are eating as I type this! Wow are they strong!) You can even sign up for email alerts when they are actually feeding the condors. It's incredible to see them in action. They also recently had a Live nest came and showed the baby "Princess" from tiny chick to when she fledged and left the nest on 11/20/2015. All Hail!

    Pinnacles National Park has a web site with information (not sure when it's last been updated) with the tags numbers, names and info of their birds. It's just luck if you see a condor flying since there aren't a lot of them but they probably have info on the best places to look. It's a bird watching "hobby" of the highest degree, going out to spot a condor, and there are many photos of people standing on those hills with giant cameras, binoculars and waiting, waiting, hoping. It's a rare treasure to see one flying. Maybe call them and ask if they have any tips on exactly where to go, or ask when you're there? I'm sure they'd know as this is a huge draw to the park.

    Take some photos if you see one and I'll post them. And yell "hi!" for all of us.

    Posted

  • MistyArt by MistyArt

    thanks for the response. I follow the Ventana pages and cams. 😃 Go to the Pinnacles at least once a month now. They have pretty decent lists of the birds on condorspotter.com that I was checking out and I noticed none of the ones born after 2012 have bios??? I counted 10 alone, all who live in the Pinnacles/Big Sur region. I just thought it was weird. Are new photos not relevant to the condor watch page??

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator in response to MistyArt's comment.

    Not sure why or how the other sites don't maintain their web pages but I did notice they haven't been updated or refreshed for a long time, too. 😕

    The Photos on the Condor Watch project end in the year 2013 and start in 2006. The "original" birds were released in 1995, 1997 and 1999 (the Orange and Red tags) This would have made them Adults already and the pioneers of the Condor Recovery Project - also mentors for the birds that followed. That's why this time period of photos is so important - it shows eight years of the flocks growing and the bulk of what has been basically "everyone" as they were released into the wild. The photos then show what social circles have been formed, what bird has what "place" in each hierarchy and who bonded with what birds.

    The recent photos are of course looked at and the data we're finding here is laying a fantastic baseline. Two years of photos isn't the hard part; it's looking at those million+ photos from years past. Citizen Scientists are awesome 😃

    Posted