As usual on our way to Page we stop at the Navajo Bridge to see if there are any California Condors hanging out in the area.

We are lucky to see more than a dozen birds on the bridge and the nearby cliffs. We speak with a guy from the “Peregrine Fund” who is in charge of the California Condor Recovery Project (see our earlier post(s) for more information). He tells us that they sadly lost about 25% of the whole population of about 120 birds in the area to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) earlier this year. The unusually wet and cold conditions last winter seem to have played a major role in the spread of the decease and was devastating for the condor population.

We are happy though to watch two of these majestic birds “flirting”. No 44 (the female) hatched at the World Center of Birds of Pray in Boise, Idaho, on June 4, 2016. And R8 (the male) hatched at the Oregon Zoo, on April 29th, 2015. Hopefully they can successfully breed and help to make up for the losses.