July 27, 2004
Condor Photos at Hopi Pt
What follows is a series of Condor-related photos taken as an experiment at Hopi Point on 26 July 04.
We have a good spotting scope, and a good camera, but they just weren't meant for each other. But the pictures are still interesting.
The first photo, above, was taken from our "Rock Shelter" observation post. It is a broad shot NW of The Battleship Formation, lower center of the photo. The nest cave is nearly invisible on the red cliff face, 1.7 miles distant.
This is a closer view of the top of the point of The Battleship. After the recent rains, many pools have been filled. The area of interest is the top point, made of whitish Esplanade Sandstone, the top of the Supai Formation.
The condors like to play and wash in water. Several have been spotted spending time at the pools here. This picture reveals the makeshift interface between scope and camera. Magnification is about 70X.
The same picture enlarged to approx. 700X. The father, #122, apparently fed the chick at about 3pm, and shortly afterward flew up to the pools and was observed to drink, play, bath, wade, and sun for the rest the afternoon. That is a pool, not a shadow, to 122's left. The Burris scope has a resolution, different from magnification, that actually makes it possible to just read the tag numbers, which appear here as a white spot on the wing. This has been traded off here for file compression.
This is a picture of the nest cave, high on the Redwall Formation. All opportunities to photograph the chick or 122 or both were frustrated by heavy rains. Stay tuned for future attempts.
If you would like to join me observing the Condor nest (Absolutely no guarantee of seeing anything) call me (Scott). I go up every week, and activity will continue, hopefully, through and beyond fledging in about 4 months from this entry.