Vacation on the Mountain

Greetings all,

I spent Tues. through Thurs. of this week at the Lookout, filling in for Mike Tyner who is on holiday. It was a hot, productive, and somewhat sentimental three days, being the first extended visit to the Lookout I’ve had since last summer. Condor activity was very low: no signals on Tues. and brief, weak signals mid-day on Weds. and Thurs. from a few birds to my distant east/southeast.

I spent a few hours painting interior window frames and sills on Weds. I’m still taken back by the transformation of the Lookout since last June and the list of “finishing touches” is rapidly dwindling. Kevin Cooper came up on thursday to complete his masterpiece of a deck, adding a stairs and siding to it. He also built some shelving in the storage areas downstairs. John from Pacific Energy came up on Thurs. and spent most of the afternoon re-wiring the solar console, installing a new battery array, and answering all the questions Kevin and I could come up with. Hooray! The power is back on!! I also had the good fortune of meeting and orienting our newest volunteer Jack Morehead of Morro Bay. Jack will be a great asset to the Project. He worked for the NPS for 40 yrs, has staffed a fire lookout (enduring lightening strikes!), just completed the Lewis and Clark Trail, and also has a background in archaeology(!). Jack took a short walk around Hi Mt. and collected what he thinks to be pottery shards from several locations. Yet another aspect of the Lookout Project that needs more investigating….Looking forward to having Jack on board.

As always, the views were terrific and the serenity at the Lookout is never disappointing. Tues. evening at dusk I was visited by a dozen or so Western Mastiff Bats. These guys are HUGE and have an eerie, audible feeding call. They coursed over the shrubs and around the tower until  well after dark. A very vocal gray fox kept me up late on weds night, yelping, whining and barking in the scrub just east of the tower. What fun!

I want to add a sincere thanks to the Poly students and volunteers whohave been staffing the Lookout since I left. The Lookout Tower and Visitor Center have been kept remarkably clean, organized, and stocked. The surrounding area is neat, trash and star thistle free, and the “scars” are healing nicely. The Visitor Center is filling up with journal articles, specimines, maps, and loads of cool stuff. Its very obvious that folks are seriously caring for the place and a feeling of stewardship hangs around the mountain. Thanks to you all for the work and dedication to the Project, it really shows. Above all, thanks for being there to look out for the birds!

Until my next trip up,

-Paul Andreano

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Hi notes

For July 21, 2003: Again, no Condor signals all day. Instead, I was intertained all day by ‘birds’ even larger than a Condor; Whirlibirds! The Pozo Ranger Station and adjacent meadow became the staging area for no fewer than 4 helicoptors being used in the fight to control the Parkfield fire off Highway 58 and La Panza. With my binoculars I was able to follow them coming and going throughout the day.

The other large bird for the day was a Golden Eagle (I’m guessing the same one I saw last week) flying near Huff’s Hole again. In addition, I was lucky to see a family of Calif. Thrashers…I’m guessing two
adults and 4 fleglings (6 total, at any rate). The weather ranged from pleasant (78 degrees) to toasty (90 degrees), but with a pleasant breeze almost all day.
Bye ’til next week,
Kathleen

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Hi notes

For Monday, July 14, 2003. I’ve come up short on Condor signals the last couple times at the lookout…but there is no shortage of other entertainging wildlife. Here’s a partial rundown: I watched a Turkey Vulture, two Red-tailed Hawks and 1 Golden eagle circling to the North of the lookout. Later in the afternoon, I saw the Golden Eagle again down toward Huff’s Hole, and, with Lisa’s account of an Eagle perched on one of the rock outcropings, I think that is probably what I saw as well. My binoculars couldn’t quite confirm it. Four House Finch nestlings are on the verge of fledging (located under the cat- walk grid of the lookout). On the road to the lookout I startled at least 3 coveys of Quail, one just below the lookout. Being the obsessive list keeper that I am, I counted an additional 22 species of birds from Pozo to the lookout (and a few that I wasn’t able to identify). The weather was pleasant (high of 90 degrees), and I’m happy to report that the bountiful flying bug collection has finally abated somewhat! The butterflies are still plentiful, however. (Is that discrimination regarding insects?!?)
Bye ’til next week…
Kathleen

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July 11-13

Hello all!
This weekend was fabulous! The weather was spectacular the the view was
breathtaking. We had 2 Big Sur birds on Sat…. boy do they move fast!
They made it from Big Sur out near Lion’s Canyon in a few hours….
We had plenty of visitors and everyone was in great spirits. There were
quite a few families and a lucky couple who got a babysitter and snuck
out of the house for a romantic dinner for two up on the
mountain….(sorry you guys had to share your alone time with us, but
it was nice to meet you!). We had a very smart young boy who rode up on
his motorcycle with his dad and I was impressed by his knowledge about
the local animals as well as his enthusiam…look out for this
one…I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him in ecology related fields.
A Golden eagle perched on Huff’s hole for a few hours on Sat. but no
sight of him on Sunday.
It was a big weekend for Turkey Vultures, Swifts and there was hundreds
of Mud- Daubers all over the Milk weeds.
Hope to see you guys soon…
lisa

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Playing with a full deck

Hi all,
Spent the day at the Lookout with Kevin Cooper,Tom Murphey,and(of course)Mike Tyner. We built a 12′X 12′deck off the north wall of the Lookout. The surface is made of recycled plastic and the addition creates a nice spot for eating, sleeping, tracking, relaxing, studying, star gazing, dancing, etc. Here is a
photo…
http://www.condorlookout.org/archives/photos/deck_builders.jpg

You should also check out Mike’s pictures of the recent fire near Hi Mt.
They are at….
http://photos.yahoo.com/himountainlookout

Cheers,

-Paul Andreano

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July 1 & 2: Fire on the Mountain!

As some of you may have saw in the newspaper we had a fire up here off of hi mountain road on Tuesday. Feeling proud to have spotted a fire from this old lookout and a little uneasy of how close it was I
reported the fire immediately to USFS dispatch and they and CDF were battling the blaze within minutes from both air and ground. Pictures of the fire should be on the lookout website in a week or two.

All in all the first of the month up at the lookout was quite comfortable. Highs hovered in the upper 70s and on Tuesday afternoon and I picked up weak signals from B-164, 167, & 171 to the southeast. At my estimation they must have been over in the cuyama valley area. Other highlights of the day was a gray fox walking down the road with some type of prey in it’s mouth, (it was close to where Kathleen had recently found a mourning dove nest), dove is very tasty if in fact it found the nest. Also on Tuesday a rare Purple Martin decided to fly by the lookout adding a new bird to out Lookout bird list. Wednesday was quiet and I spent a couple hours pulling yellow star thistle.

Mike

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The Fruits of our Efforts

Greetings all,

Spent a beautiful, breezy 24hrs at the Lookout over the 4th with my sister Lisa, one of our new interns. We had some nice views of the Pismo fireworks on the 4th and four car loads of visitors up on the 5th (plus visits from Joe Lucero/USFS and Dr. Holland/CPBIO). I am so impressed with how the Lookout Project is evolving. With the tower all set up for research/living and the Visitor Center filling up with articles, notes, pictures, and all sorts of great stuff, the Lookout really feels like a functional research station and interp center. What an awesome transformation since last summer!!!!! The radio was squawking, telonix beeping, folks down in the visitor center, phones were ringing, and I couldn’t help but think how odd it was to be way out there and surrounded by all that activity.

Having a full time staff of interns, volunteers, and students really makes the place hum. Should be a great summer. I was just elated to see that the apricot tree next to the cistern is fruiting this summer. Just my luck that the free food arrives after I leave…yum…

I wonder if all the water in the cistern is helping this little tree out now. I always thought it originated in someone’s lunch years ago.

How could I ignore the symbolism as I tasted the sweet (but warm) fruit. The Lookout Project has grown into fruition too. Its been to watch it break dormancy, blossom and now……

Cheers,

Paul Andreano

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Hi notes

Monday June 30, 2003. No Condor signals all day. Spend a pleasant day observing the local birds, bugs and butterflies. One of the House Finch nests has 2 ot 3 fuzzy new occupants (couldn’t tell how many, but they were newly hatched). Also found a Mourning Dove nest with two eggs and attendant mother dove anxiously watching me from the nest. The weather was perfect, ranging from the mid 70s to mid 80s.
Bye ’til next installment…
Kathleen

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June 26-30

Hello everybody,

The past weekend was fairly busy with many visitors including the Central California Biological Society. The group came on Saturday with Steve S. in the morning and stayed through lunch. Lisa and I showed them around, talked about Hi Mtn senior projects, and condor telemetry. Many tried their hand at telemetry. Despite the hot weather we had many visitors of all kinds who’s pictures will soon be posted on our web site thanks to Paul. Friday and Saturday the Milky Way was very visible and an amazing site. Lisa and I put up a new sign down by the gate to let people know we are open. We have been having waves of different insects and the most numerous this weekend was the swallow tail butterfly. Other wildlife sightings of interest this weekend at the lookout were a skink, horned lizard, golden eagle, and nuttall’s woodpecker (landed on the catwalk). Unfortunately we did not pick up a single condor the whole weekend but feel that our luck will soon be changing. A highlight for us this weekend was watching all of the hummingbirds around the feeders.

Holly Messer (intern)

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Hi notes

Monday June 30, 2003. No Condor signals all day. Spend a pleasant day
observing the local birds, bugs and butterflies. One of the House
Finch nests has 2 ot 3 fuzzy new occupants (couldn’t tell how many,
but they were newly hatched). Also found a Mourning Dove nest with
two eggs and attendant mother dove anxiously watching me from the
nest. The weather was perfect, ranging from the mid 70s to mid 80s.
Bye ’til next installment…
Kathleen

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June 26-30 at Hi Mt.

Hello everybody,
The past weekend was fairly busy with many visitors including the Central
California Biological Society. The group came on Saturday with Steve S. in the
morning and stayed through lunch. Lisa and I showed them around, talked
about Hi Mtn senior projects, and condor telemetry. Many tried their hand at
telemetry. Despite the hot weather we had many visitors of all kinds who’s
pictures will soon be posted on our web site thanks to Paul. Friday and
Saturday
the Milky Way was very visible and an amazing site. Lisa and I put up a new
sign down by the gate to let people know we are open. We have been having waves
of different insects and the most numerous this weekend was the swallow tail
butterfly. Other wildlife sightings of interest this weekend at the lookout
were a skink, horned lizard, golden eagle, and nuttall’s woodpecker (landed on
the catwalk). Unfortunately we did not pick up a single condor the whole
weekend but feel that our luck will soon be changing. A highlight for us this
weekend was watching all of the hummingbirds around the feeders.
Holly Messer (intern)

Read More