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“For me, the heart of California lies in the Condor country. 
And tor me the heart of mystery, of wonder, and of desire 
lies with the California Condor — that majestic and almost 
legendary figure which still haunts the fastnesses of our 
lessening wilderness. The Condor is monarch of the air. We 
cannot say that tnere are not swifter birds or more agile 
birds, but there are none among land birds in whom powers 
of endurance have been more fully developed, or who have 
achieved a mastery more unquestioned. There is no more 
majestic spectacle in the bird world than that afforded by 
the Condor's glide. It is as rigid, as inexorable, as fundamental 
as the law of gravitation itself." 
—Wiliiam Leon Dawson 
"The Birds of California,'’ 1923 
Your Delegate’s Report: 
THE NATIONAL AUDUBON CONVENTION 
November 1966 
By DR. WALLACE W. KIRKLAND, JR. 
Off to California with the “backing” of the Illinois Audubon Society for 
our fifth — and the National Audubon Society’s 62nd — annual convention 
in Sacramento, Calif. 
Birding through the southwest, we crossed the dry Colorado River at 
Yuma on November 4. Here we were met by our friend and ornithological 
guide, Jim Lane (“Birding in Southern California’) for a delightful week 
of padding our life list: Through the Imperial Valley, Aberts Towhee; 
around the Salton Sea, 235 feet below sea level, Violet-Green Swallow; 
down to the Tia Juana River flats, White-tailed Kite, Elegant Tern; and up 
to San Diego’s Point Loma for the Wanderling Tattler and Black Turn- 
stone. 
Two days in Condor country from 9,000-foot Mt. Abel to the San 
Juaquin Valley brought Golden Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and LeContes 
Thrashers but none of the 52 California Condors officially counted two 
weeks earlier. 
At Monterey, Surf Birds, Chestnut-sided Chickadees and Black Oyster- 
catchers were found along the shore. On a story pelagic trip 10 miles out 
into the Pacific, with gale warnings and rain, Auklets, Murres, Guillemots, 
Sooty Shearwaters and a Pomerine Jaeger were sighted. 
Finally, on to Sacramento to learn of California’s resurging population 
with a finite resource cultivating deserts and pocketbooks. President 
(now Dr.) Carl Buchheister announced the “Silver Linings” for conserva- 
tion theme of this year. Warden John Borneman introduced us to Cali- 
fornia’s oldest citizen, the Condor. Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wis.) developed 
