Big Creek condor chick in good health, despite trash in the nest

Today the VWS went to the nest to do a health check on the chick and vaccinate 

it for West Nile Virus. The chick is in great shape.  Fat and happy.  Weighed about 

7.5 lbs at about 41 days old.  Both parents were seen in the area.  There were

about 10 pieces of trash in the nest brought in by the parents:  bottle

caps, broken glass, pen cap and some other stuff.  Likely picked up on the

Hwy 1 corridor. Another chick, which

we checked the same day, was also in great shape and weighed about the same

and is at about the same age.  That nest had 4 pieces of trash, 2 broken

glass, a small shim, and 1 piece of pvc.  Unfortunate that any trash was in

the nest, but pretty much every condor nest seems to have at least some sort

of manmade junk in it.  The amount of trash found in Big Sur nests is much

less then in nests in southern California which have major trash issues.  So

far hasn't been a health issue for our chicks up here.  Located our 5th and

final nest of the season the other day.  That egg is scheduled to hatch

sometime this week according to the parents behavior patterns the last 2

months.  Very remote and difficult to access nest.  So hope they pull it off

without needing our intervention.