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California Condorby
Ziggy Carrion
eaters With
unfeathered heads A
single, greenish white or bluish white egg Laid
in a cave, rock crevice, or pothole After
long, soaring flights It
suns itself on a limb of its nest tree, a giant sequoia Pushed
to the brink of extinction By
the arrival of humanity, Lead
poisoning And
DDT
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By
Jack
Elegant,
conspicuous
Soars
high, emits loud cries
Koor-r-r,
koor-r-r, uck-uck
Floats
like a cloud up in the sky
With
majestic wings spread wide
Graceful, trumpet like
Black mask like a bandit
To match her black wings
Soaring through the air
A blur of grey and white
Over the grasslands,
Her seaside home
Over the plants and dunes
Sweeping down to her nest
Where are her eggs?
Her fledglings gone
A feral cat has taken them
She soars up again
Starting again
Finding home
Sleek,
undetected
with
loud cooing, ventriloquial songs
pure
white belly and cinnamon upper wings
with
a striking black-and-white under tail
most
noticeable in flight
Fragile
open-cup nests
in
willows, cottonwoods,
and
occasionally mesquite thickets
We
weave our nests of twigs, rootlets, dried leaves
Rimmed
with pine needles
2
to 4 pale blue to green eggs
chicks
develop rapidly
fully
feathered in 6 days
feeding
on caterpillars, grasshoppers, cicadas, and frogs
Long
distant migrants, wintering in South America
summer
in California, Arizona and New Mexico
stripping
away of vegetation
pesticides
eliminated
habitat
Northern Spotted Owlby
Megan Round
headed, dark eyed, Northern
Spotted Owl perches
and listens to
her newborn downy owlets in
the raptor’s nest, nestled
in the old, decaying branches amid
a dense, damp old growth forest – the
magnificent, old growth forest where
trees are being cut down by
the cold, terrible logging companies. They
are responsible for the threat to the
Northern Spotted Owl… the
beautiful Northern Spotted Owl
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