Documentary soars with condors - Wildlife Gardeners

Staff · 09-13-2009, 09:39 PM

Documentary soars with condors
(01:28) Report
Sep 7 -
Julie Gordon reports

Documentary soars with condors | Video | Reuters.com
excerpt from above:
Using a paraglider to carry the cameraman, the team behind "El Camino del Condor" has produced innovative images of one of the world's most majestic birds.

Equilibrium · 09-13-2009, 11:14 PM

This one showed one having a meal. There's another video out there that I couldn't find that I watched that showed close up frontals of the birds. They're fluffy when the wind ruffles their feathers. What I don't like is the transmitters placed on all of the condors that are released.

YouTube - California Condor Eating Deer Heart

Staff · 09-15-2009, 04:54 PM

Scientists work to repopulate Colombia's skies with condors
Andean condors were once hunted to near extinction. Now teams feed and track the giant carrion-eaters, brought from U.S. zoos, and have increased their numbers tenfold. Tourism also benefits.
By Chris Kraul
August 30, 2009

Condors: Scientists work to repopulate Colombia's skies with condors -- latimes.com
excerpts from above:

Quote:

And so it was that peasant "condor keepers" this month placed a cow fetus on a desolate rain-swept cliff here in the Colombian Andes, the weekly ration for Iraka and Ogonta, two females released this year in a repopulation program sponsored by the San Diego Zoo.

Quote:

The Andean condors are the latest of 70 birds released in Colombia since 1989 after being hatched and raised in 20 U.S. zoos, most often at the San Diego Zoo.

Quote:

For centuries condors were killed by people who either thought, mistakenly, that the carrion birds attacked their livestock or that their feathers or bones had magical or medicinal power.

Staff · 10-25-2010, 10:55 AM

California condor population hits 100
October 6, 2010 | 6:12 pm

California condor population hits 100 | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times
excerpt from above:

Quote:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the landmark Wednesday, crediting a captive breeding program started in Southern California in 1982, when there were only 22 wild condors in the state...

philip · 10-25-2010, 01:00 PM

Andean condors are fairly amazing things to see.

I was in the Patagonian Andes for a few months, (I'm about 60% sure I was where that first video was posted, at one point).
I'll bore people with condor stories later maybe, but the first time I saw one close up it gave the impression of a small animal flying a very large machine.

Equilibrium · 10-25-2010, 10:44 PM

"I'm about 60% sure I was where that first video was posted, at one point" I know what you mean about being 60% sure!!! You start getting into regions like that and all those high plateaus start looking alike. I'm sorta a big fan of raptors so hit me up with your stories since I've never been to the Patagonian Andes.... someday soon I hope.

philip · 10-26-2010, 09:33 PM

Heh.

I think it was filmed near an area called Huapi. Near a lake called Laguna Negra specifically.

Around that area, I did a little climbing, and got up very high on the cliffs. I could see condor circling and catching updrafts and so on, for a long time (ie minutes). It takes a while to notice, but once it hits you it's fairly amazing : I don't think I ever saw one flapping. Granted I was there in the summer, so there were plenty of thermals I suppose, but once you start watching them you realise they are so machine like, and part of the reason is because they seem to move so little.

My story, well, it was not actually in Huapi, I was coming off Vulcan Villiarica (sp?) and I had spent a long time walking over a pretty huge snow field. (I suppose about a day.) The pair of us walked off the snow field, and onto desert, very flat, quite hot. At some point the pair of us just both flaked out on a dune (there was no shade anywhere, but it made sense at the time...).
I lay there facing the searingly black blue almost looking sky, and closed my eyes. Neither of us had spoken to eachother for a while, but it was clear where we were headed for, and we didn't really need to talk a lot. The guy I was with at the time was a former Israeli special forces sniper. He was a good guy to have around in a desert, and he was generally fairly chilled out. So, I was a little surprised when he blurted out PHIL.

Hmmm?

PHIL.

mmm. What? (Eyes still closed.)

<fairly impressive hebrew cursing> PHILIP!

At that point I realised the sun had gone in behind a cloud. Weird. I didn't see any clouds. So I sort of sneaked an eye open, but everything was sort of bright, so I was a little squinty.

HOLY ****! <more hebrew> DID YOU *SEE* THAT????

Oh yes. Em. Open eyes fully, and sit up. See what? Ohhhhhhh. Crap.

A condor was wheeling around us, getting very close, and taking a very keen interest in us, but had just decided better of it having seen us both leap up, and was just turning, and rocketing off fairly low to the ground away from us, downhill.

It took me a while for the penny to drop.
At the start I was sort of, ooooh, a condor.... bloody hell they're massive.. ok, that's quite near enough, ok, bye.

What are the chances Ido eh? We've been out walking for about 10 hours, and neary a condor in sight, and I shut my eyes for 2 minutes, and he's right there... oooooh.

Hmmm. So... eh. We were basically on the menu there, right?

Concerned solemn nodding from Ido.

...and... he just thought we corpsed it on the dune, right?

Uh mmm.

..and, he's been watching us for pretty much the whole day possibly? And we've seen him... zero times. I see. Interesting.
It puts you in your place.

philip · 10-26-2010, 09:53 PM

This is the area I think.

YouTube - patagonia TV - nahuel huapi traverse - 4. tag nach laguna negra

The OP doc is a montage, but what gives it away at one point is the profile of a peak that you can just catch a few glimpses of around the 45 second mark in the OP.

You can clearly see it in the middle distance in the youtube the german dudes posted. I suppose I must have those peak's profiles burned into my mind.

Another thing that you catch about the German youtube is the absurdness of the place. It's straight out of Mordor. Everything is ridiculously excessive in Patagonia. The scale's are vast. Everything has the volume turned right up, the sky is BLUUUUEE, the mountains are STTTEEEEEPP, the storms hit you HARD... and so on.

At a certain point you start to get *kind* of used to it. But it takes months. Oh, yes, SOARING mountains, very nice. Oh. Cute little mountain flower!

BooBooBearBecky · 10-28-2010, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by philip

What are the chances Ido eh? We've been out walking for about 10 hours, and neary a condor in sight, and I shut my eyes for 2 minutes, and he's right there... oooooh.

Hmmm. So... eh. We were basically on the menu there, right?

Great "true life story" of your condor encounter Philip!!!!

I'm glad you didn't end up as comida (lunch) for the condor!

Share your "one with nature" stories anytime! Got any more?

philip · 10-28-2010, 10:04 PM

Heh, yeah. Plenty. I'll probably have to get a pipe and walking stick before I have them all embellished enough for forum documentation

I was in the Patagonian Andes, on that trip, for about four months. I was alone for the majority of the time. More or less the only thing I didn't have close encounters with were Puma.

The majority of my time I've spent out in the mountains etc was in Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland, also Norway for a bit. I mentioned in another thread that we have nothing like the diversity you guys have in the America's though. Although there are plenty of pretty things to look at in Ireland to be fair.
I used to be a cyclist in a small team there. I can tell you that sheep, when surprised by a cyclist coming down a hill, can achieve a speeds just shy of 30 mph. Also they are not clever animals, regarding which path is optimum for avoiding cyclists. (Hint, it is not the path directly in front of your front wheel.)

It's sort of a minor thing, compared to all the grandeur of the Andes, but... well, one thing that was really mind bending was a time I saw an Owl fly directly over my head, probably about 3 meters away.

I clearly saw it flying towards me, at around 6am, when I had woken and was going to the river to get water. It watched me, and casually enough flew at me, and over me. I was completely fixated by it.

After it had gone, I was standing there, and my brain was reeling. I could not figure out what had happened. I clearly saw this animal, I could see it's feathers, it's eyes watching me, I saw it banking away, heading for the line of trees. But my brain was not buying it.
Then I realized, my brain had never dealt with a *completely* silent animal before. This owl made no noise. It was right there, there was no question, but the silence was so astonishing I doubted what I had clearly seen.

09-13-2009, 09:39 PM	#1
Staff WG Staff Join Date: Nov 2008	Documentary soars with condors Documentary soars with condors (01:28) Report Sep 7 - Julie Gordon reports Documentary soars with condors \| Video \| Reuters.com excerpt from above: Using a paraglider to carry the cameraman, the team behind "El Camino del Condor" has produced innovative images of one of the world's most majestic birds. __________________ The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. -Mencius

10-25-2010, 10:44 PM	#6
Equilibrium Official Plant Nerd Join Date: Dec 2008	"I'm about 60% sure I was where that first video was posted, at one point" I know what you mean about being 60% sure!!! You start getting into regions like that and all those high plateaus start looking alike. I'm sorta a big fan of raptors so hit me up with your stories since I've never been to the Patagonian Andes.... someday soon I hope. __________________ "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

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10-25-2010, 01:00 PM	#5
philip Salamander Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: North Bergen / Cliffside Park New Jersey	Andean condors are fairly amazing things to see. I was in the Patagonian Andes for a few months, (I'm about 60% sure I was where that first video was posted, at one point). I'll bore people with condor stories later maybe, but the first time I saw one close up it gave the impression of a small animal flying a very large machine.

10-26-2010, 09:33 PM	#7
philip Salamander Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: North Bergen / Cliffside Park New Jersey	Heh. I think it was filmed near an area called Huapi. Near a lake called Laguna Negra specifically. Around that area, I did a little climbing, and got up very high on the cliffs. I could see condor circling and catching updrafts and so on, for a long time (ie minutes). It takes a while to notice, but once it hits you it's fairly amazing : I don't think I ever saw one flapping. Granted I was there in the summer, so there were plenty of thermals I suppose, but once you start watching them you realise they are so machine like, and part of the reason is because they seem to move so little. My story, well, it was not actually in Huapi, I was coming off Vulcan Villiarica (sp?) and I had spent a long time walking over a pretty huge snow field. (I suppose about a day.) The pair of us walked off the snow field, and onto desert, very flat, quite hot. At some point the pair of us just both flaked out on a dune (there was no shade anywhere, but it made sense at the time...). I lay there facing the searingly black blue almost looking sky, and closed my eyes. Neither of us had spoken to eachother for a while, but it was clear where we were headed for, and we didn't really need to talk a lot. The guy I was with at the time was a former Israeli special forces sniper. He was a good guy to have around in a desert, and he was generally fairly chilled out. So, I was a little surprised when he blurted out PHIL. Hmmm? PHIL. mmm. What? (Eyes still closed.) <fairly impressive hebrew cursing> PHILIP! At that point I realised the sun had gone in behind a cloud. Weird. I didn't see any clouds. So I sort of sneaked an eye open, but everything was sort of bright, so I was a little squinty. HOLY ***! <more hebrew> DID YOU SEE* THAT???? Oh yes. Em. Open eyes fully, and sit up. See what? Ohhhhhhh. Crap. A condor was wheeling around us, getting very close, and taking a very keen interest in us, but had just decided better of it having seen us both leap up, and was just turning, and rocketing off fairly low to the ground away from us, downhill. It took me a while for the penny to drop. At the start I was sort of, ooooh, a condor.... bloody hell they're massive.. ok, that's quite near enough, ok, bye. What are the chances Ido eh? We've been out walking for about 10 hours, and neary a condor in sight, and I shut my eyes for 2 minutes, and he's right there... oooooh. Hmmm. So... eh. We were basically on the menu there, right? Concerned solemn nodding from Ido. ...and... he just thought we corpsed it on the dune, right? Uh mmm. ..and, he's been watching us for pretty much the whole day possibly? And we've seen him... zero times. I see. Interesting. It puts you in your place.

10-28-2010, 10:04 PM	#10
philip Salamander Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: North Bergen / Cliffside Park New Jersey	Heh, yeah. Plenty. I'll probably have to get a pipe and walking stick before I have them all embellished enough for forum documentation I was in the Patagonian Andes, on that trip, for about four months. I was alone for the majority of the time. More or less the only thing I didn't have close encounters with were Puma. The majority of my time I've spent out in the mountains etc was in Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland, also Norway for a bit. I mentioned in another thread that we have nothing like the diversity you guys have in the America's though. Although there are plenty of pretty things to look at in Ireland to be fair. I used to be a cyclist in a small team there. I can tell you that sheep, when surprised by a cyclist coming down a hill, can achieve a speeds just shy of 30 mph. Also they are not clever animals, regarding which path is optimum for avoiding cyclists. (Hint, it is not the path directly in front of your front wheel.) It's sort of a minor thing, compared to all the grandeur of the Andes, but... well, one thing that was really mind bending was a time I saw an Owl fly directly over my head, probably about 3 meters away. I clearly saw it flying towards me, at around 6am, when I had woken and was going to the river to get water. It watched me, and casually enough flew at me, and over me. I was completely fixated by it. After it had gone, I was standing there, and my brain was reeling. I could not figure out what had happened. I clearly saw this animal, I could see it's feathers, it's eyes watching me, I saw it banking away, heading for the line of trees. But my brain was not buying it. Then I realized, my brain had never dealt with a completely silent animal before. This owl made no noise. It was right there, there was no question, but the silence was so astonishing I doubted what I had clearly seen.