A Condor Nest

Pinnacles National Monument announced last week that they have a pair of condors nesting within their park for the first time in 100 years. The nest is viewable from one of the hiking trails. Yes, it's time to go for a hike.

Ali and I head off to Pinnacles, which is half an extinct volcano on the San Andreas fault, it's location being the clue as to why it's only half a volcano - the other half is a couple of hundred miles south, on the other side of the fault.

You have to hike a couple of miles in and up to get to where you can see the nest, and even then, you're quite a way aways from the nest (you need at least binoculars to see it), though the rangers had a scope set up to view it through.

We got to see other condors on the hike up, and got really lucky in that we saw both condor parents too, as they take turns to look after their egg, and only swap places every three days or so - we got to see the mother coming back after three days away, then shortly after, the father flew low over our heads too - very cool.

Also got to see a bald eagle, still a rare sight in California.

Photos are here.