California Condors

These are two of the 70 or so California Condors flying free in the Grand Canyon. In particular, this is #23, a fifteen year old male and #97 a seven year old female. According to the condor tag chart, #23 has been unpaired since his mate died in 2008. As of December 2010, #97 was unpaired too. Maybe love is in the air? I sure hope so.

I took these pictures with a 24-105 mm Canon zoom lens and a Canon T1i camera. They are cropped some. It would have been great to have a 300 or 400 mm lens though...

Jim

http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/california-condors.htm

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I had the privilage to soar (in a hang glider) with the last few Condors free in the wild in California. They were trapped about a month or so later, so it was the very last time I saw them. We soared to about 11,000 feet and we shared a thermal, they out climbed me of course. But, I turned North and they turned South toward Santa Barbara and we parted ways. Wish I had a camera with me.