Babs' Birding Experiences : Vermilion Cliffs-Condor Viewing Site, Coconino County, AZ

Painted Desert from Cameron Trading Post at sunset 9/27/19

The distant trip from Phoenix Valley to observe the CALIFORNIA CONDOR Release on Saturday, September 28, 2919, took us into a very beautiful part of Arizona: Marble Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs in northern Arizona almost to the Utah border.

As you may know, the population of CALIFORNIA CONDOR (CACO) reached a critical low number of 22 in the world in 1982. With the efforts of biologists that number has grown over the past 37 years to approximately 500. The condors reach sexual maturity in five to seven years and may live in a monogamous relationship for fifty (50) years or more unless the mate is lost. Being scavengers, their biggest threat to a good life is lead from shot in wild animal carcasses they feed on. Despite an educational campaign to use copper bullets instead of lead, our North American condors continue to meet their demise from hunters' leavings. So, the program seems to go forward and backward simultaneously. The good news is that at least one CACO has given birth in the wild to a healthy young.

Since the restoration program began, CACO have been released in Central and Southern California; Baha, Mexico; and in Arizona. Thus, my eagerness to experience the release of four young (18 month-old) condors at the Vermilion Cliffs today. Of the four (4) young condors being released, two were raised in Boise, Idaho; and two in Oregon. The Peregrine Fund has been critical in supporting the continued growth of the condor population and I understand that these four condors have been acclimated to Arizona.
Fitted with a numbered light wing tag and a tag for telemetry before release, each condor will be tracked for as long as possible. The numbers of the released condors were:
X6, X9, XX, and X7. So, if you see any of them at the Navajo Bridge anytime soon, you'll know they were released from Vermillion Cliffs on September 28, 2019.

With the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies gathered at the Release Site (about 3 miles in from Route 89a on a dirt road), Jannie Blok and I arrived in plenty of time to avoid a long walk into the viewing area.

My little blue Honda is the third car from the left (above) with shades in windshield. Plenty of cars in front of mine and lots more being added to the rear, far down the road.

Many folks gathered at the BLM information area where spotting scopes had been set up.

Having trekked across the desert to the edge of a wash to set up along with several other folks, we were looking back at the large group and down into the wash where a small group chose that place to get some space to look at the Big Birds.

We were all looking up the high cliff to the Release Site cage where the four young condors would gain their freedom.

The one distant photo up to the Release Site cages. Several wild adult California Condor are perched on the rocks and one on top of the cage awaiting the big moment.

As often happens when birders gather, I came across friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Anne and Theona from Desert Rivers Audubon were there as were a few folks we came across at Navajo Bridge where we had stopped on our way here to the Release Site.

At the two bridges (the old one is now a pedestrian bridge while the new one was built to replicate the original but wide enough for modern traffic.) It was here at these two bridges-beween 8-8:30 a.m.-that all my condor photographs were taken. The Colorado River that runs beneath the bridges is lined with two steep cliff sides of red rock.

The five CALIFORNIA CONDOR pictures I took there were for birds identified by their tags

as: P-2; P-5; T-7; P-8 and 54.

P-8 was directly beneath me on the Old Bridge. With a good lean over the rail, I was able to snap this photo while it watched me!

Two Juvenile CALIFORNIA CONDOR perched on the new bridge support beams

54 going for a stroll on the new bridge structure
Below, the same bird finds a perch.
Ugly heads are free of feathers for cleanliness purposes since they feed on carcasses.

P-54 at new perch

Every show needs a star; today it was P-2. Perched next to a juvenile, the two of them were not getting along.

It separated itself from the juvenile. Note Colorado River below.

Then, took off.

Top side of P-2 as it flies toward cliff wall

P-2 in flight giving a good view of its 9.5 foot wingspan (wider than the length of a ping pong table)

Is there room on that ledge?

No!

P-2 settled on a boulder along the steep wall, free from the juvenile's closeness.

Back at the Release Site, some onlookers took off themselves after watching the first CALIFORNIA CONDOR walk to the edge of its cage, look around and lift off away from us. Many of us remained to see each Condor find its way to winged freedom for the first time.

Mass exodus of people after first CACO took off.

The young condors that followed the leader did not run out immediately but took their time checking out the cage and the ambient situation before they, each in their own good time, lifted high and off to the East. But what a thrill to see these giant birds taking their first free flight!

As I mentioned at the start, we were enjoying some of the best lands that Arizona protects.

Marble Canyon

Balanced Rock

Jannie at Little Colorado River Gorge, Cameron Trading Post

Gecko symbolizes "desert"

With a gecko at each side of this tunnel beneath 89a leading from the RV Park to the Trading Post, I thought the symbols might also mean "protection".

Sunset on Friday evening toward Painted Desert

The 700-mile round-trip journey was broken up with a stop at Kachina Wetlands on Friday and a drive along the Lower and Upper Lake Mary with no waterfowl in sight. The road into Mormon Lake Village was gated and closed so we looped back toward Flagstaff and continued on up Highway 89 to the Trading Post.

The Condor Release at the beautiful Vermilion Cliffs was a highlight of my year of birding to date.

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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60156940

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60212087

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60212551

COMPARATIVE SIZES OF BIRDS WITH WIDE WING SPANS: