I am a tad disappointed that none of our Arkansas contingent has stepped forward to proudly announce their state is the only proven refuge of this rare bird…perhaps they need to rework their state quarters.
The article brings back memories of when I was a 12 year old visiting my Aunt in Thousand Oaks, CA. Sitting out by her pool (it was a rough, rough trip), I saw this buzzard that looked large enough to be a small airplane glide right over the pool. When I told her about it, she said I was exaggerating. Then, at dinner time there was a TV news story stating they were rounding up the last of the California condors for a breeding project (forgive if my memory is a bit vague on this - it was 26 years ago) and one of the birds was located in the canyon right behind her house.
Many years ago I was with a friend standing outside our car talking out in the middle of nowhere in southern Utah. To our amazement we saw two gigantic dark birds standing at the base of one of those beautiful red sandstone buttes in the area. We didn’t have binoculars, but watched them for a few minutes wondering what in the heck they could be. Suddenly they both ran for quite a distance along the ground and took off, flying over the hill. For years I insisted to people that we’d seen condors (this was pre-condor reintroduction).
Some years later (still pre-reintroduction) there was an article in a small town newspaper in another Utah town about an unidentified huge dark bird hanging around at the town “landfill” and people were saying it was a condor. A Fish & Wildlife man was interviewed and said one way to identify a condor is that it has to run along the ground to take off. They never did find out what that bird was.
That clinched it for me. I still say my friend and I saw two condors in southern Utah many years before they were “reintroduced.”
Jayhawk, I hate to do this but there was a thread on this yesterday and some people from Arkansas did respond----I only mention it so you will know that they did have the proper state pride! I’m happy to read the CNN story you posted. I think it is really neat that a bird that has not been seen during my lifetime (which is 55 years!) has been seen again. I can’t hear enough about this beautiful bird.
Cynth I didn’t see that thread…didn’t have woodpecker in the title so I didn’t look! I’m glad our Arkansian kindred have pride in their unique and secrative denizen.
To keep the avian them - we have a pair of redheaded woodpeckers who just made a home in one of the branches of our severely maimed maple trees (had to dig all around the tree to replace sewer lines). We were going to have the tree trimmed up over the summer, but now we’ll wait until we know if they have eggs and the hatchlings are free of the nest.
Susan - I’m sure you saw a pair of condors! I’ve seen turkey buzzards, various vultures, and nothing is comparable in size to a California condor.
