In January of this year, HMANA continued its guided raptor field trips by exploring the Antelope Valley of southern California. Home to Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains, exotic airplanes are not the only birds that call this desert area home.

Trip leaders and HMANA board members Luke Tiller and Tom Reed were able to put the group of 10 participants on 20 different wintering raptor species over our five-day journey. Despite the challenges of some stormy weather Luke, a resident birder, and guide, also got us on another 150 or so California species which proved to be a real treat for the crew of primarily Eastern and mid-Western birders.

Up close and personal, California Condor was the major highlight of the trip, which also included several Golden Eagle and Bald Eagles, a White-tailed Kite zipping around Lake Elizabeth, Ferruginous Hawks in the valley, a couple of different morphs Rough-legs, several other morphs Red Tails, and some close-up Red Shoulder Hawks.

We started the trip with a visit to the Ballona Creek jetty in Marina Del Rey, which provided us our first raptor, with good views of a Peregrine Falcon actively stirring up the smaller birds along the nearby beach. Easterners were also treated to an excellent array of Western diversity, including Wandering Tattlers, Black Oystercatchers, Black Turnstones, Brandt’s Cormorant, Eared and Western Grebes Heermann’s, Glaucous-wing, Western and California Gulls and Royal and Caspian Terns, to name a few.

Day one concluded with the spectacle of the parrot roosts in Pasadena, where we were treated to the sounds and sights of hundreds of loud Red-crowned, Yellow-headed, and a few Lilac-crowned parrots coming to roost. What a show!

Day two upped our raptor viewing with a beautifully perched Prairie Falcon in the valley, excellent views of a rufous-morph Red Tail, and several wonderful close fly-bys of a dark morph Ferruginous Hawk. At the same time, we watched a Great Horned Owl watching us from a nearby grove of trees. Later in the valley, we also found a few elusive Mountain Plover.

Day three provided us the highlight of the trip when we visited the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge. Bitter Creek is the keystone of the historical condor range and is now one of the primary condor release sights. Closed to the public, HMANA was fortunate to gain access to the 14,000-acre site and was to be provided a day of viewing from their private condor platform in hopes of spotting some distant soaring birds. However, as we drove through the hillside and before we got close to the platform, we had a small flock of eight California Condor begin to rise from the valley right in front of our group. This dramatic yet friendly group of magnificent birds circled low and slow at eye level and low over our heads for over an hour, providing for some awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping encounters. Most of the time, they were too close for photographs, so it was best just to put down the camera and watch in awe and feel them checking us out as intently as we were looking at them.