05/02/2026
Yesterday, as I finished a hike in Big Sur, I noticed a couple of distant condors in a tree up on a ridge, so I grabbed a spotting scope to see if I could get ids or not. As I was doing that, I noticed one of the other folks nearby was wearing a Liberty Wildlife hoodie, so I asked the him if he'd like to see some condors and he said he would.
For those that don't know, Arizona based Liberty Wildlife provide veterinary and rehabilitation support to The Peregrine Fund and the AZUT flock of wild condors, so I figured there was a good chance this gentleman would be interested in condors.
As I was setting up the scope, he told me he'd already been looking at condor 81 a few miles south of our current location and showed me a video on his phone that identified 1081 perched above the ocean.
After we'd looked at the condors through the scope (they were too far away to id, even with the scope), I headed south in hopes of finding 1081 and got lucky. She was now perched out of phone camera range (I used the scope again to read her tags and confirm her id) but then she took flight and descended down within range of my telephoto lens before continuing south and off up into a nearby canyon.
So, thanks hoodie wearing gentleman, I thought I was doing you a favor, but you ended up doing me a favor!
