A condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge?

Can you imagine sighting a condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge? But just what is a condor, and where is Navajo Bridge? Google these and you'll find out!

Well, about a month ago (April 16, 2010), my friends and I were on vacation driving around the Grand Canyon area in Arizona, USA. We drove over the Navajo Bridge and decided to stop at the visitor's center by the bridge to enjoy the picturesque scenery and to snap some pictures. The weather was really very sunny with a light cool breeze and a comfortable temperature of around 21 deg C (70 deg F). It was almost 4 pm in the afternoon when a visitor on the bridge came over to me to asked if I had a telephoto lens on my camera, which I didn't have, unfortunately. He said he would like to use it to check out a large black bird perched on a steel beam beneath the bridge, which could very well be a condor. It was quite a distance from us. We all watched it for awhile, and I decided to take some snapshots at it with my low-end automatic camera.

Here are some of my camera shots:

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A northwest end view of Navajo Bridge. The circle in red indicates where the bird was perched.

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A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture.

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The condor (in the red circle) as viewed from the northeast side of Navajo Bridge.

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A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture. Note that the condor had a "C1" tag on its left wing.

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Note that the pictures here are web-optimized, but the original ones are available upon request. FYI, here is a Condor Conservation weblink.

Enjoy!

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Dec. 27, 2014 - Lastest update to my favorite Condor C1:
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I just discovered that Condor C1 died of suspected lead poisoning in June 19, 2012, according to the condor website http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/condor_updates.htm, which said:

7-year-old female 381/tag C1: Chris Parish of The Peregrine Fund reports "June 19, 2012 - Grand Canyon dispatch relayed information that Condor #381F was reported to have been observed on the previous evening on a beach in South Canyon in rather poor condition. The next morning she was found dead. After a first failed attempt at recovery in the 100 plus degree heat, two TPF biologists were successful in recovering the carcass on Friday 22 June 2012. The carcass was intact and radiographs revealed what appears to be an intact pistol bullet in the area of the ventriculus suggesting ingestion, but we'll let the pathologists determine what they can." Condor Cliffs displays the x-ray image showing the pistol bullet. As posted by The Peregrine Fund biologists, this is likely "not a hunting issue or season- animals are dispatched or put-down all of the time, and this is probably one of those cases."