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Wildlife officials on Central Coast are concerned for the California condor population after an avian outbreak in ArizonaThe death of six California condors from avian flu in Arizona raised concerns for wildlife officials on the Central Coast. "The last thing we need is a population of 88 to be threatened by bird flu with no treatment or vaccine, so that's why we're taking these additional preparations,” said Kelly Sorenson. Sorenson, with Ventana Wildlife Society, leads a team that monitors and protects the condor population locally. In 2022, they reported a low population of the already critically endangered species. They...

It was a sunny morning when about 200 people trudged up a hill in southern Argentina's Patagonia region with a singular mission: free two Andean condors that had been born in captivity. While members of the Mapuche, the largest Indigenous group in the area, played traditional instruments, and a group of children threw condor feathers into the air to symbolize their good wishes for the newly liberated birds, an eerie silence engulfed the mountain in Sierra Paileman in Rio Negro province as researchers opened the cages where the two specimens of the world’s largest flying bird were kept. **SNIP** The...

Wildlife biologist Joe Burnett was out in Big Sur on Wednesday using a radio transmitter to search for California Condors missing in the wake of the Dolan Fire.Wildlife biologist Joe Burnett was out in Big Sur on Wednesday using a radio transmitter to search for California Condors missing in the wake of the Dolan Fire. So far Burnett has been able to locate 90 members of the 100 bird flock and he is hopeful he will find the rest. "Their instincts are strong but even the strongest bird can occasionally make a wrong decision and potentially get caught," said Burnett....

I was watching "Three Days of the Condor", a 70's political thriller. There is a scene where a CIA director (John Houseman) is pondering possible reasons that Robert Redford's character has gone rogue. In the original, Houseman says "For example, has he gone into business for himself? Was he turned around? Does someone operate him? Homosexual? Broke? Vulnerable? Could he be a soldier of fortune?" In the version on FIOS On-demand, the word "homosexual" has been clumsily edited to "sexual".

Operation Condor – How NSA Director Mike Rogers Saved The U.S. From a Massive Constitutional Crisis… Posted on January 5, 2018 by sundance This outline is the stunning backstory to how the FBI Counterintelligence Division and DOJ National Security Division were weaponized. This outline is the full story of what House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes is currently working to expose. This outline exposes the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. This outline is also the story of how one man’s action likely saved our constitutional republic. His name is Admiral Mike Rogers. I’m calling the back-story to the 2016 FISA...

Big Sur >> She might be a princess, but she’s about to do some heavy lifting. California condor No. 799, dubbed Princess, is expected any day now to make her first flight from her nest atop a redwood tree in the Big Sur wilderness, said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society. “There’s been five chicks raised in wild nests just this year,” Sorenson said. “That’s quite an accomplishment.” One of this year’s chicks was raised by two female condors after the suspected mate of one of them died after nesting began. Ventana Wildlife Society monitored females 317...

Gun control advocates used plight of iconic California condor to push legislation. A pro-hunting group is up in arms after obtaining emails that it says indicate that a federal official withheld critical data on lead blood levels in the California condor until after gun control advocates in the California state legislature used the iconic bird’s plight to help push through a law last year to ban lead ammunition. ... Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel, accused the Fish and Wildlife Service of deliberately sitting on the report in order to bolster the chances of passage of Assembly...

Rare bird at extinction's brink is spotted on Peninsula.After 110 years, a California condor has returned to San Mateo County. The first California condor spotted in San Mateo since 1904 is a three-year old female that flew over 100 miles from San Benito County to Pescadero, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Condors are big birds with wing spans of up to nine feet, according to wildlife experts. They're also breeding again "on their own" after hunting and habitat loss cut the condor population down to 22 in 1982. All 22 of the condors were captured and made to...

The LA Times reports that sales of the book, which concerns a discontented propagandist working for the Ministry of Truth in a time of endless war, are up 5,771 percent as of Tuesday morning. From a sales rank of 12,507 in the days before The Guardian published top-secret government documents provided by Snowden, "1984" has risen to crack Amazon's top 200.

A Los Angeles-based private investigator is heading the search for whoever shot two endangered California condors in the isolated central part of the state, and his backers are offering $40,500 in reward money. Bruce Robertson has been hired by the Center for Biological Diversity, which has also printed 600 "wanted" posters to help track down the culprits, the Monterey County Herald reported. Robertson told The Herald he has put more than 1,000 miles on his car driving around the condor's Central Coast range since he began working on the case last month. The two giant birds, with wingspans up to...

When the last surviving California condors were taken into captivity by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the mid-1980s, they were transported to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo where, among other things, they were treated for parasites. Living within the feathers of the birds were Colpocephalum californici—an avian chewing louse that looks pretty much like all other lice: a bulbous head, stubby thorax, six hooked legs and a stout, hairy, segmented abdomen. But these lice lived only on California condors and were also facing extinction. More overlooked than willfully extinguished, the last C....

In the wilderness north of Fillmore, the California condor has fought its way back from the brink of extinction. As the federally endangered scavenger's population dwindled over the past century, the rugged mountains became the metaphorical and geographical heart of the movement to save it. But the area is not just good for condor habitat; it's rich in oil, too. The region has some of the oldest oil fields in the state. A recent decision to once again open Los Padres National Forest to gas and oil exploration could threaten efforts to replenish the condor population, some say. While the...

French connection armed Saddam By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES The United States stood by for years as supposed allies helped its enemies obtain the world's most dangerous weapons, reveals Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, in the new book "Treachery" (Crown Forum). In this excerpt, he details France's persistence in arming Saddam Hussein. First of three excerpts New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq. The intelligence reports showing French assistance to Saddam ongoing in the...

<p>A second California condor hatched in the wild has been found dead here, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.</p> <p>The death of the 5-month-old bird leaves just one chick of the original three left in the wild. Two weeks ago, the first condor to hatch in the wild in nearly two decades was found dead.</p>