Although the trip technically began early Saturday morning at the Glendale library, a number of us stayed in Flagstaff the night before and also Saturday evening. Bruce Palmer, the trip leader, and his wife, Chris, drove the remaining participants early Saturday, meeting the rest of us in Flagstaff. The Palmers had a large van so the ten participants were able to travel in one vehicle to the canyon. Chris baked some brownies and also brought a number of other delicious snacks for the trip. We told Chris and Bruce that they were spoiling us; field trip leaders aren’t expected to be that ambitious.

Bruce Palmer, who works for the Fish and Wildlife Service, is the national coordinator for the California Condor recovery program. This proved to be advantageous in several different ways. The condors all have attached radio transmitters and Bruce had a receiver, which was attached to a parabolic antenna so he could tell when we were approaching a condor. He was able also to tell us the age, sex, and identification number of each bird. Bruce also had a Condor Recovering placard which allowed us to drive into areas of the park that are closed to the general public’s private vehicles.

Bruce briefed us on the complete recovery program and the status of all the released birds. There was a Maricopa field trip to California in 1986 led by Bob Bradley where we saw the last California Condor in the wild. It was an immature male which was captured and put into captivity. Bruce knew exactly which bird we had seen. He said that the immature male that we had seen in 1986 has been re-released and is now in back in the wild in California. He told us the age and identification number of that Condor. He also told us about releasing a number of Condors in Mexico.

We did go to what was left of an elk carcass but no Condors. They always were off in the distance. Bruce could pick up on the radio receiver but would be so far away we couldn’t see them. Bruce finally took us to a lookout where we could see the ledges where the Condors had unsuccessfully nested this summer.

Finally late in the afternoon we came upon two condors which were sitting on the ground, right near Bright Angel Lodge, allowing us to get perfect views of them. Bruce told us that several Condors had been killed by coyotes which crept up to them while they were perched on the ground. Several other Condors had been killed by Golden Eagles. The Condors were feeding on an elk carcass and hadn’t learned that they have to leave it when a Golden Eagle approaches. The eagle will grab the Condor’s head in its talons and that’s the end of the Condor.

Other birds seen on t he trip were Turkey Vulture, Mourning Dove, White-throated Swift, Steller's Jay, Western Scrub-Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Western Bluebird, European Starling, Rock Wren, Violet-green Swallow, Mountain Chickadee, Clark's Nutcracker, Lesser Goldfinch, House finch, Black-headed Grosbeak and of course our target bird the California Condor. We could probably have seen more species, but we were mainly looking for the Condor.

All of us were thankful we went on the trip, especially having such a knowledgeable leader as Bruce Palmer. He added considerably to our knowledge of the California Condor and the South Rim area.