My first sighting of California Condors 見到加州禿鷹

加州禿鷹是北美洲最大的鳥，成鳥展翅幾乎有十英尺長。因為棲息地減少，鉛中毒和偷獵，在1987年只剩22隻，全被捕獲，在洛杉磯和聖地牙哥動物園保育繁殖。我印象裡的禿鷹都是保育人員手套上戴著假禿鷹頭餵食新生兒的照片。到1991年保育成功，就開始逐漸放生野外。他們常在在中加州Monterey 以南的Big Sur附近活動。這次跟著賞鳥隊，希望可以一睹這瀕臨絕種的大鳥。領隊問說，誰沒看過加州禿鷹？十五位隊員裡，只有兩人舉手， 我當然是其中之一。一行人到一號公路旁的 Andrew Molera State Park 裡的 Discovery Center 參觀，出來正要吃自備的午餐，有人抬頭望著天空，問說，那是嗎？領隊 Lisa 拿出望遠鏡鑒定：就是他！高空盤旋的禿鷹，飛的低時，可看見胸前的白塊，是成鳥！展翅飛翔毫不費力，這鳥很會利用熱氣滑翔，一旦登空，很少需要拍翅。每天覓食可能要飛上一百五十英哩。天空中還看到 Turkey Vulture 和 Red Tail Hawk, 今天的任務已經達成了！


加州禿鷹只吃腐肉，尋找食物的方法是用看的，他們大多在高空盤旋，看到死屍或其他禿鷹在吃死屍才落地，以他們碩大的體型嚇走其他獵食者。另一種火雞禿鷹則有敏銳嗅覺，在幾英里外就能聞到屍體開始腐化時放出的氣體，尋找食物就比較容易。也因為覓食方法可能找到的食物不夠，有些加州禿鷹到現在還是靠人類提供食物，以確保繼續生存。另外獵人用的槍彈含鉛，留在獵物身裡，被禿鷹吃了，會引起鉛中毒，所以禿鷹的生長地區，獵人必須用無鉛槍彈。每隻禿鷹在翅上都有一塊編號，到 Ventana Wildlife Society 免費下載 app, 馬上可以看到這鳥的名字，生辰八字和祖宗八代，感覺上親近了很多， 好像交了個朋友一樣。

我們沿著一號公路一直開到Big Sur 南邊，一路停了幾次，看看周圍的鳥，天上的鳥。回程走一程小路由內陸再回一號公路。幾個小時內看到了六，七隻禿鷹，幾十種其他鳥類，很滿足的回家。北加州的海岸世界有名，不僅風景美，也因為環境保育做的好，野生動物很多。我很慶幸住在這裡，開一，兩小時的車就能看到這麼多自然美景，也因此很感謝環保人士不懈的努力。環保是要付出很大的代價的，加州禿鷹的保育繁殖花了三千五百萬美金，每年還需兩百萬持續禿鷹的生存。也因為前人種樹，後人乘涼，我今天才能看到這雄偉大鳥。心裡無限感激。

加註：Oakland 動物園在2013年10月設立了禿鷹攝影機，白天可以看禿鷹的活動。

The most vivid impression I have regarding California Condor was the human hand inside a glove with condor head and beak that fed a new born condor chick. By 1987, with the threat of lead poison, decreasing habitat and poaching, California Condor was at the blink of extinction, all 22 condors that's left in the wild were captured and bred at San Diego Zoo and Los Angels Zoo as a conservation program. The program turned out to be quite successful. Beginning at 1991, they have been reintroduced into the wild. Each of them carried an antenna for tracking and a flap on the wing with number on it.

And that's how 25 years later, in 2012 I was able to take a bird watching trip to Central California coast in an attempt to see a California Condor. We had 15 members in the trip that day, only 2 haven't seen a condor yet. Needless to say, I was one of them. After a short stop at Moss Landing, where we enjoyed a funny sea lions and pelicans encounter, we moved on to the Discovery Center of Ventana Wildlife Society in Andrew Molera State Park. At the picnic area with big trees around when we intended to start our lunch, someone looked at the sky and asked, Is that what I think it is? And sure enough, checked with her binocular, our bird guru Lisa handed down the verdict: That's a condor! It glided and circled around the area several times, then a second condor appeared, then a pair of Red Tail Hawks came into picture, both with their talons out, ready for hunting?

Continuing on to the Big Sur and beyond, with several stop to check out what's around and what's on the air. We got to see the tag from one of the condors, Lisa pull out her iPhone and check the number on the Ventana Wildlife Society app. She got to see the name of this condor, who's the parents and other related information. Talk about privacy on the web!

A photo on the wall of Ventana Discovery Center. Feeding a dead calf to young condors.

Different stage of appearance of a condor.

There were many turkey vultures in the area too, obviously they have no problem surviving the environment. Even from the binocular, it's hard to tell apart between a turkey vulture and a condor flying high on the sky. Only when a condor flew low enough, the big white patch on the under side is visible. According to Lisa, turkey vulture would titter the wings while flying. The California condor, with its formidable wing span of close to 10 feet, would just ride from thermal to thermal, hardly need to flap the wings.

Another thing that affect the adaptation between those two big birds is how they find food. Turkey vulture has keen smell, can detect miles way when the body of a dead animal barely started to decay and emit gas. The condor rely only the vision to spot the dead animal, or the gathering of other scavengers. Even the condor can fly 150 miles a day searching, they are still in the danger of not finding enough food to survive, and rely on human intervention for the food supply.

California condor eats only carrion, it would get lead poison if takes in animal body part with bullet pieces. So in the Central California condor habitat, using bullets contain lead to hunt is prohibited. It's hard to imagine we human being would go such a long way to protect an animal, but I would not be able to see them today if not for the conservation effort. In about 4 hours, we had at least 6 sighting of condor. Another indication that we are doing the right thing to the environment.

Special note: Oakland Zoo has set up a Condor cam for (almost) live viewing in the day time.