Condor Sighting

The next stop after visiting Lee's Ferry is Navajo Bridge.  The original bridge, built in 1927 with an arch of 616 feet, 834 feet long and 467 feet above the Colorado is now a foot bridge, replaced by a new, wider motor carrier bridge in 1997.

The two bridges are adjacent to one another and the beams and girders of the new bridge have become a favorite perch for Condors.  Standing on the old bridge gives you a great view under the new bridge and its inhabitants.  Provided of course that it is the right time of year, the right time of day and the right kind of weather.  Even then there is no guarantee you will see a Condor.

Standing at the entrance of the old bridge looking southeast across the new bridge.

The Colorado does not have its iconic red color to it at this point.  It does not pick up the red until it passes the confluence of the Little Colorado 20 miles down.



Looking north, towards Lee's Ferry about five miles away.

 

 



The Navajo Bridge has a great little visitors center.  Only small RV parking available and just a couple at that.

So, here we were, just enjoying the nearly noon-day sun, architecture of the bridges, the sheer cliff walls and the Colorado River.  All the while thinking we had arrived too late in the day to see a Condor warming up before taking flight for the day.  While lining up a shot through the new bridge I first thought I was seeing a raven through my lens.  Then somebody said; "Condor!"  I zoomed in and sure enough, there set a Condor just plain as day.

I started snapping feverishly.  I was actually getting to photograph a nearly extinct species of wildlife in the wild!


This is the "control" shot.  This is the closest I ever was and had my 300mm lens zoomed in as tight as it would go.  Again, I thank you guys for my retirement gift for which none of the following shots would have been possible.

This is a first-level cropping and enlarging.  Pretty good detail showing in the Condor and his ID tag is more than clearly visible.

This was taking the cropping and enlarging as far as I dared.  Condors are ugly cusses aren't they?

Just as I was getting some good shots of this guy warming up and drying out for his day's flight, something caught his attention above him.

A little ruffle of the feathers.....

A spread of the wings.....

Look at the left wing, you can see the radio transmitter antenna.

And it is off into the wild blue yonder.

With only two flaps of his 9 foot wingspan his landing gear was up and he was in full soaring mode.

As we watched 02 soar along the cliff wall of the Colorado River we saw some more birds perched on rocks waaayyy down the river.  We got out our binoculars to get a better look and saw that there were about a half-dozen ravens hanging out with another condor.  If I was pushing the envelope with the above pictures, then I got way outside the envelope with the below.

That is number 54 perched on a rock and if you look in the upper-left corner you can see 02 soaring off into the distance.

Look at the raven checking out number 54.

The encounter with the Condors really charged me up.  Ever since the 1970's I have watched the documentaries about the decline in population and the ultimate decision in 1987 to capture every single one of the few remaining birds (22 of them) and try to restore the species through captive breeding.  The chances of success were slim and I was resolved in the thought that I would never get to see one of these, wild or captive.  But the breeding program has done well.  So well in fact that they have been releasing breeding pairs back into the wild since the mid-90's.  California was first and then the Grand Canyon, the Vermillion Cliffs to be more exact.  When the first birds were released in 1996 it was the first time since the early 1900's that a condor had been seen in Arizona.  A very select few have been released in the Grand Canyon so I feel really lucky to have made the sighting and get some photos.