Hi Mountain

The Cal Poly Crew is getting ready to start up another round of field
work at Hi Mountain…we love spring. Towards that goal I spend
Saturday afternoon and evening around the lookout. Things are not as
quiet as that were a month or so ago. Many of the wintering birds have
begun to vocalize. There was an abundance of American Robins working
the Toyon berries. The California Trashers seemed to be much louder and
persistent than last month. A couple of other signs of spring include
lots more insects up and about, many flowering plants (phlox, bush
poppy, shooting stars, lupines, vetch and entire hillsides of Ceanothus
(buckbrush)), and large patches of miner’s lettuce in areas that are
blazing hot and bone dry by summer. We did succeed at setting up
several Owl calling stations that will be monitored for the next few
months. We even got some call backs on our first night out. All in all
it looks like it is shaping up to be a fun and productive field season
up at the Lookout.

Hope to see some of you over the next few months.

Francis (aka Dr. V.)

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Sunday 3-23-03 at Hi Mt.

Today was our first day of actual monitoring after having been checked out
by Steve Schubert a while back. Kathleen Intorf was good enough to meet us
at the ranger station early to get us access to the telemetry equipment. It
was foggy in the Pozo valley at first but cleared off later. Scanning at
1000 Hr produced nothing but later at 1330 we picked up signals from Condor
Y194 at a bearing of 330 degrees. The signal was moderate at first but then
faded to weak then nothing. We were very happy to have made a telemetry
’sighting’ on our first day.

Visitors included the resident BLM manager of Carrizzo Plains along with
her two Flat-coated Retrievers. Also a mtn. biker stopped in.

A grand day.

Dick & Pat Boyd

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Hi Notes

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 was spent ‘observing’ one intrepid lady
Condor! I picked up the signal from just one bird, but was able to
follow her from the Ventana Wilderness area, through Atascadero, and
all the way to Hopper Mt. I tried my best to find her with my
binoculars, but could only make out a group of about 6 Turkey
Vultures in the direction of the signals I was receiving from Condor
W231. I talked to Joe Burnette at the Ventana field station and he
said W231 is a young bird (I’m guessing recently released this
winter). W231 was one of four Condors that I tracked 3 weeks ago,
making the same trip. Don’t know why she was alone this time around,
but I say ‘You Go, Girl!’
Despite our efforts to keep the rain out of the lookout, it managed
to get in past our Duct taped doors. So in addition to wielding an
antenna and Telonix receiver, I did duty with a good old mop and
rags. It must have been quite a storm: there were three rock, mud and
shrub slides on the road up to the lookout, but they only came across
half of the road and were not a problem.
The flowers are still blooming and it is a beautiful drive up to the
Top ‘o The Mountain!
Kathleen

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Hi Notes

It was a beautiful day at the lookout yesterday, March 12, 2003…but
no Condor activity to report. I talked to Pam at Hopper Mt. and she
said that two of the birds I had received signals from last week
(Y194 & OR209) stayed at Hopper Mt. and that W231 & OR199 returned to
Ventana.
In addition to the usual bird population at the lookout, I had two
human visitors: One bicyclist (Bob) and one pedestrian (Dave). The
weather is very mild and the wild flowers are putting on quite a show
for those who venture up the mountain.
Bye ’til next week,
Kathleen

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Hi Notes

Hi Notes
Finally, after several months of not receiving signals from the
Condors, I picked up signals from four birds on Wednesday March 6.
They all seemed to be together, travelling from North to South
(perhaps from the Ventana Wilderness area to the Hopper Mountain
area). The four birds were Y194, OR209, OR199 and W231. It was a
sunny but somewhat chilly day at the lookout. The drive to the
lookout is beautiful, with shooting stars and manzanita still in full
bloom. There were 8 wild turkeys strolling along the side of the
road, near the lowest water trough, when I drove home at about 4:30.
Bye ’til next week…
Kathleen

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Hi notes

Catch up time! I haven’t sent a message for several weeks: I didn’t
go to the lookout three weeks ago because the telonics unit was
malfunctioning and Mike Tyner had to exchange it for another unit
from Hopper Mt. The new one works great…but the condors are staying
in their Ventana and Hopper Mountain ranges, so no signals have been
picked up in our area for five or six weeks now.
I spent Wednesday, Jan 29, at the lookout. It was foggy in
Atascadero, all the way to Pozo. The drive to the lookout was
beautiful; the shooting stars and manzanita are blooming and the
rocks are covered in lush green moss. There were flocks of robins and
cedar waxwings in the trees on the way up. My most notable bird
encounter that day was with the Harrier that seems to hang out near
the gate below the lookout. I’m walking along the road below the gate
and here comes the Harrier zooming very low along the road. Remember
in the Star Wars movie (2nd or 3rd episode) where Luke Skywalker
flies his very speedy aircraft among the canyons of the death star?
That’s what this Harrier reminds me of…a stealth ‘birdcraft’! He
just skims the ground and shrubs and is going like a Harrier out of…

OK, fast forward to this week, Wed. Feb 5: No condor signals, but an
amazing bird encounter. I took a walk along the southern trail that
leads to Hi Meadow. I noticed an Ameican crow, but didn’t pay much
attention…until he started doing some impressive aerial stunts! He
circled above me and began doing complete body rolls. He was making a
four note warbling call that I’ve never heard a crow make before and
kept circling and rolling over. My theory is that he was seeing if he
could impress me and, if that worked, he was going to try it out on a
certain lady crow he has in mind. Just a theory. There were no other
crows around at the time. I was impressed…it could work!
That’s all for now…Bye
Kathleen

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