Return of the condor

Earlier this month, Sue and I went wandering around between Phoenix and Las Vegas, visiting family and enjoying the wild things of the Southwest. In our travels so far, nothing can hold a candle to the trip over the Colorado River, near Marble Canyon in northern Arizona.

Preparing to leave Phoenix for Vegas, we called Grand Canyon National Park to ask about the whereabouts of California condors along the route. (Grand Canyon's South Rim has a condor-viewing area all summer.) But the Park Service was less than encouraging, telling us we "might" see condors at Navajo Bridge, spanning the Colorado.

In spite of the chance we'd make the long trek for nothing, we decided to give it a go. It's a long way from Phoenix to Marble Canyon, so, by the time we reached the south end of the Navajo Bridge all we could say about the trip was it was mighty pretty country, but void of any exciting wildlife sightings.

That all changed the moment we rolled up on the south end of the bridge. Way up ahead I spotted two large dark objects on the railing and thought, "No! It can't be!" But it was...

Two very large and healthy-looking California condors were standing on a flat part of the bridge railing, and as we approached they started head-bobbing and necking with each other. I had already slowed way down, and thankfully no one was following me, so I let the 4Runner coast to a stop off the traveling lane, and sat there blazing away with my old Canon EOS.

The condors seemed oblivious to the vehicle and continued their head-bobbing and rubber-necking. I was shooting as fast as I could. This was the first time in my life I had been ever been that close to a condor.

The last time I saw a condor was years back when my son Ross and I had a dad-and-son outing, touring the Grand Canyon, where we watched condors at the South Rim and then went on into the Navajo land of Tony Hillerman. Murphy's Law intruded on that trip - I lost the data card with all my condor images. As I was blazing away at the two condors on the bridge I made sure Murphy wasn't riding my bike this time.

After a while, the two condors got bored with our presence and took off. The visitor center at the north end of the bridge was closed, so we parked our rig at the locked gate and walked down into the parking area-and there I about dropped my teeth!

I kept seeing more and more condors perched in and on the bridge supports, and as I arrived at a total of 12, I began to laugh, thinking about the NPS response, "You might see a condor at the bridge, but don't get your hopes up." Never in all my 86 years of living on Mother Earth did I ever dream of having 12 wild living California condors in sight at one time in one place!

So, sounding like a chamber of commerce spokesperson, I will say that if you want to see California condors in late fall and early winter, head for Marble Canyon and the Navajo Bridge spanning the Colorado River in northern Arizona. There's a lodge within walking distance of the bridge, and the Resurrection Cafe where Chef Joe will make you anything you want to eat, even a green smoothie if you bring your own makin's.

The next day Sue and I returned to see how many condors remained and met up with Mark Dicky, a wildlife biologist who watches over condors, 24/7/365. When I asked him what the condors were eating he responded, "Oh, they're just coming back from Utah where they were watching over about 200,000 sheep, and you know, sheep are born to die."

Most everyone knows that condors are purely scavengers, but unlike the turkey vultures that roost near Doro Sokol's place, condors watch for other scavengers and drop in for the feast. Unfortunately, if there's a golden eagle already feasting on the dead animal it could be fatal for the condor.

Also, if the carcass they start ripping into is full of lead, that is the end of the condor. Lead poisoning is fatal to condors most of the time; that's why California has banned hunting with lead projectiles in condor-foraging country, and why the USF&W should push it for the nation. After all, lead is banned for waterfowl, it should also be banned for all game animals-which has nothing to do about hunting, only what is used for hunting.

As of June 2014 - according to National Park Service - there is a total 439 condors on old Mother Earth; 225 in the wild, soaring over Utah, California and Arizona and 214 in captivity in various zoos around the U.S. If the Portland Zoo-who is raising condors for release-has anything to say about it, we could see them back in Oregon some time in the near future

Taxpayers have invested over $35 million in saving the condor from extinction, and as of 2007 it was costing about $2 million annually to keep the recovery program going. If you'd like to become involved in helping to gather data on condors, go to Project Condor Watch at http://www.condorwatch.org and join the thousands of citizen scientists volunteering to help save these Native American giants of the air.