Week Two

My second week was great, we were in the field and out of the office all week. Our week started out with vegeatation surveys for three days. After identifying them for three days, I know my desert plants like the back of my hand! Later in the week, we did a couple paragrine falcon surveys. We went to an active nest site and observed two adults for a few hours. Although we did not see any young, we suspect that they have some who are too young to venture out of the nest. We'll continue to monitor them and not the dates that the young emerge and fledge. We also checked out a new site of a potential paragrine nest. It was the middle of the day, so we didn't see any activity, but we'll be going back this coming week to check it out again. We also spoted a golden eagle nest, with a nestling in it. His parents had just brought him lunch, so we watched him eat for a while. On Saturday, we went to Zion National Park, where some of the rangers put on an event to see wild california condors, the largest bird in the world (wingspan 9 1/2 feet), who are experiencing a very successful comeback. Thier numbers were at one time down to 22, all of which were in captivity. After successful breeding programs, many were released into the wild, and there are currently around 300 individauls, about 150 of which are in the wild and breeding successfully. In the park they've had five chicks hatch in the wild just this year. In the evening, we went to Parawan Gap to observe the summer solstice the way the Native Amercans did. The sun sets right in a gap in the mountains on the longest day of the year, and the area was sacred to many different tribes of Native Americans. Also in the area are numerous petroglyphs and petrified dinosaur tracks, wood, and plants that are visible in the rocks.