At the risk of sounding like a
braggart, I’m going to say I have one of the greatest jobs in the world. How many people can say that their job allows
them, no requires them, to explore one of the most amazing conservation
properties in California? Well, that’s
me! At 270,000 acres, spanning four
major ecological regions that support dozens of unique and special status
species, Tejon Ranch is one of the most remarkable landscapes where I have ever
had the opportunity to work. I also get
to explore and share it with other like-minded people, which makes it even more
special. And when you get to see and
experience the natural world in a way that one rarely has the privilege of
experiencing, and seeing things that you can’t see anywhere else on Earth, well
that makes for a pretty good day at the office.
I want to share a few recent experiences that I have had at Tejon Ranch
that makes me wonder if I should be paying the Tejon Ranch Conservancy rather
than the reverse.
Early last week, I was showing a
colleague from out of town around the Ranch.
It was about 8:30 am and a warm spring morning. I was driving and we were deep in
conversation. As we came around a bend
in the road, what do we see but two young mountain lions resting in the shade
on the side of our road not 20 yards in front of us! Now mountain lions are not rare in California,
but those of you that have spent lots of time outdoors will agree that this is
not a common species to see. In fact
many naturalists, hikers, hunters, and other outdoor enthusiasts have never
seen a mountain lion in the wild, and there may be no other animal in
California that folks would like to see more when out in natural areas (from a
safe distance of course!). But lions
appear to be abundant on Tejon Ranch based on the frequency with which we
capture them in our remotely triggered wildlife camera traps (for example, see
the video below). The two I saw last
week were the fourth and fifth mountain lions that I have seen in my life, and
the other three were also on Tejon Ranch.
Am I lucky? I would say incredibly
so.
The following weekend, I was out
with our friends from the Kern California Native Plant Society (CNPS)
chapter. I generally visit parts of the
San Joaquin Valley side of Tejon Ranch with Kern CNPS, because it is a shorter
drive for them and there are lots of rare and endemic plants on that side of
the Ranch. But particularly given our
drought conditions and how late in the season it was, we decided to drive
around to the Antelope Valley to look for Tehachapi buckwheat, which is a later
blooming plant. Tehachapi buckwheat (Eriogonum
callistum) is an endemic species, which means it is a species restricted to
a specific area, and is considered seriously endangered in California by
CNPS. In the case of Tehachapi buckwheat,
the area it is restricted to is limestone outcrops on certain ridges on Tejon
Ranch – this is the only place on the planet that you can see this plant
species. Well we found it alright! (see
below). While it is considered
“seriously endangered” in California, it is actually quite abundant where it
occurs, and all of the known locations on Tejon are on conserved lands. It is a beautiful plant, growing in a really
unique habitat type, and unlike mountain lions not hard to see. So here is a very cool plant that occurs
nowhere else in the world that I can essentially drive to on my lunch
break.
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Tehachapi
buckwheat growing on a limestone outcrop.
Photo by Mike White.
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Tehachapi
buckwheat growing out of a limestone outcrop with manzanita and chamise above. Photo
by Mike White.
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Five
California condors roosting in a large white fir. Photo by Mike White
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But it gets better. That same weekend I had the pleasure of
taking two good friends of the Conservancy, Loi and Adele Nguyen, on a tour of
the Ranch. Adele is one of our California
Naturalist-trained docents and Loi is a great photographer with a love of
raptors. After unsuccessfully looking
for a family of long-eared owls that nested in one of our desert canyons
earlier in the year, we headed up to the high country to look for California
condors at a location with large white firs that they seem to have adopted over
the past few years as a roosting area.
Loi very much wanted to get some pictures of condors when the morning
light was still good. As we pulled into
the area, my heart sank as there were no condors to be seen! We drove around a little more looking for
some raptors for Loi to photograph without much luck, and decided to head back
to a hill top from which we could see the known condor roosting area. Still no birds in sight. But as I start thinking about Plan B, I am surveying
the roosting area with my binoculars, and I see two condors rise over the
ridge! As we drive back to the roosting
area, the condors settled into one of the large firs. We have a great view from the ground below, a
pretty special sight indeed. However,
now things just get, well, incredible! A
couple more condors fly in, then a couple more, then a couple more, until I can
see 11 condors either sitting in trees or flying overhead. I mean right overhead! It was if they were circling over and
watching us while we were watching them.
If you have heard the sound that the wingbeats of a large bird make when
flying nearby, even something as small as a raven, you can only imagine what
the sound of a bird with a 9-foot wingspan can make! Kind of makes you feel
like you’re back in the Pleistocene (who needs Jurassic Park?!). We sat in one location for over 2 hours as 13
condors took turns cruising over us, roosting in trees, and interacting with
each other. I have seen quite a few
condors at Tejon Ranch in the 7 years I have been here, but have never
experienced anything quite like this. It
was definitely one of my most memorable wildlife experiences, but you could
also say it was “just another day at the office!”
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A
condor coming in for a landing. Photos
by Loi Nguyen.
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A
condor leaping from its perch. Photo by
Loi Nguyen.
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“Condor
Love” by Loi Nguyen. The juvenile has a
black head and the adult an orange head.
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