News from Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve
The Ventana Wildlife Society just got a live camera up and running. Take a look to see real feeding activity. There aren’t many opportunities to see whole flocks of condors together but you might see it here.
http://www.ventanaws.org/condor_cam/
Note: the camera site is not at Big Creek Reserve.
#665 was given to Condor #168 and Condor #208 as a foster egg and hatched May 17, 2012. These spectacular parents are very close and they took excellent care of #665 in the cozy confines of a redwood nest cavity. However, they hit an unintended snag. Good condor parents try to find fragments of bone and seashells to bring back to their chick in the nest. The calcium in these items is essential for the chick’s bone growth so that they grow up healthy and sturdy. Unfortunately, condors have trouble distinguishing man-made pieces of trash from their target items. During #665’s routine nest entries, there were multiple instances when it was clear that “micro-trash” was a problem. Biologists found small trash items in his nest and even felt some trash in his crop (including a bottle cap and glass). Indeed, we have found buttons, pull-tabs from cans, screws, metal washers, and other man-made trash items in a number of nests. Sadly, some chicks have died from ingesting these items, so it is very important to pick up trash in the wild, no matter how small, whether it belongs to you or others.
Despite the micro-trash hazards of his days as a chick, #665 has been doing well along the Big Sur coast throughout 2013. He stuck around his natal redwood forest territory quite a bit for the first several months of his life, hence the nickname, Redwood Son. As he has aged, he has begun to explore more of Big Sur and hang out with other juvenile condors in his cohort.
Our local pair, #168 and #208 are back in Big Creek but have found a different site to nest this year. Taken from the VWS’s field notes, they write the following. I encourage readers to check out their field notes site as it contains news about all the condors’ activities.
April: Ventana Wildlife Society’s field biologists and interns embarked on a nest search in a remote canyon. Like a treasure hunt, our crew followed signals and trail-blazed through fallen trees, brush piles and poison oak until we located #168 “Beak Boy” and #208’s “Solo’s” new nest up high in a burned out redwood tree. This couple has nested in a different place each time in their territory since and all of their nest cavities have been in redwood trees. It is encouraging to know there are so many large holes and broken out tops to support them.
May: The Big Creek pair 168 and 208 has successfully accepted a foster egg, and the pair has started raising a chick.
I’ll post another update the next time I see the VWS crew checking on the chick.
Mark
Unfortunately I have some bad news about our Big Creek pair, 168 and 208. VWS brought a foster chick to the Big Creek nest on April 27th and the chick was found dead on April 30th. The cause of death is currently unknown. Everything seemed to be going really well with the egg delivery. The chick was pushing at its shell and vocalizing. The male, 168, settled down onto the egg after the insertion. All looked good. But then both parents started flying again and showed up at the VWS release site at Anderson Peak. That shouldn’t happen when condors are caring for chicks so they knew something was wrong. Mike made a dash to the tree site to find the foster chick lying dead at the bottom of the nest tree.
The hatching process is extremely precarious for any bird and many things can go wrong in the final stages. This may have been the case here, but until we know more about the cause of death, we can only speculate to what may have happened. We can only express how sorry we are for this pair’s loss…there’s always next year. We still have one pair that will be receiving a foster chick in early May, so 2011 will still be a very reproductive year for the Big Sur flock.
You can find out more about Big Sur condor activity here: http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_fieldnotes/index.htm
You can also read the life histories for 168 and 208 and others on the VWS site.
We are happy to find that our local condor pair, 168 and 208 have found a good burned out redwood tree at Big Creek Reserve to use as a nest, again. This pair nested at Big Creek in 2009 but abandoned the nest after their chick died from ingesting garbage (see Nature Notes – Condor Nest 2009 blogroll). They took a look over the ridge into Hot Springs Creek last year but they have returned and it looks like their new chosen tree should suit their needs. The 2009 tree was dead and ready to fall down but this year, the tree is still alive and strong, despite having a fire-carved cavity. Redwood tree cavities make good nests and Big Sur condors have figured out how to use them.
The pair’s egg is now safely being incubated at the Los Angeles Zoo. Female 208 has actually had a good track record with her eggs not being as thin-shelled as others, thus increasing their hatching success in the incubators. Still, the risk of the pair crushing the egg is too great and so biologists have initiated the standard practice of replacing the egg. There is a foster, captive-laid egg lined up for the Big Creek pair that should be ready in late April. In the mean time, the pair are happily taking care of their dummy egg and the Ventana Wildlife Society team are keeping watch.
Look for more news here as the nesting progresses. Information can also be found in the “Field Notes” section of the VWA news page.
-MDR