California chicks finally hatch in LA

What about my babies?! Who in their right mind still puts lead and DDT into the environment?

Cute California chick hatches at L.A. Zoo, a boost to endangered species (KTLA)

This hideous turducken-like chick is a beautiful endangered species just born in LA (KTLA)

Endangered California Condor Chicks Hatch At LA Zoo | Los Angeles, CA Patch

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The California condor is a Mexican immigrant

Those bald eagles are totally unreliable, possibly due to DDT contamination of the environment by humans that reaches LA's neighboring forest and waterways at Big Bear Lake, next to Mt. Baldy, which is not named after its nesting eagles.

There are legends of this great bird.

Eaglets are cute and beautiful but, as stated, unreliable. Everyone had their eyes trained on the Eagle Cam. And for what? Nothing but disappointment. Thanks for nothing, corporate polluters, who hurl heavy metals and other contaminants into the atmosphere, landing on bodies of water to poison the fish and selling pellets that kill rodents and poison the birds and mountain lions.

Imagine taking van into the woods to see nature

But good news: the Los Angeles Zoo has succeeded in birthing five critically endangered condors, the majestic vultures of California and other parts of Mexico. (California is, after all, part of Mexico, now divided in two parts, Alta and Baja, but no one has told the birds, who are illegally crossing over into American airspace all the time). There are only approximately 350 condors left in the wild. There are soon to be five more.

Alas, these chicks are not nearly as cute as their hoary cousins of the north. But their mothers and many others may love them all the more for it.

In other cute baby animals born today news: Adorable but deadly fluff balls, better known as pygmy slow lorises, born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo

• Endangered California condors born at Los Angeles Zoo (KTLA)
• 5 California condor chicks hatched at Los Angeles Zoo (NBC Los Angeles)
• VIDEO: LA Zoo celebrates 5 California condor hatchlings, with more to come (ABC7 Los Angeles)
• 5 endangered California condors born at L.A. Zoo (Yahoo)
• Want to see a California 'superbloom'? Go to LAX airport

Condors

California Condor - Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens (lazoo.org)

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I understand you've been exterminating us

(LA Zoo) California condors have soared in the skies of North America (mostly in Mexico) for some 11,000 years, since the Pleistocene era. Their range once extended across the southern half of North America and along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

With a nine-and-a-half-foot wingspan, these ancient birds can fly more than 100 miles each day in search of carcasses to feed on.

Condors roost on rocky ledges and in treetops, where they can easily launch into the warm air rising in morning thermals.

These vultures are highly intelligent, inquisitive, and social birds. By 1982, the wild population had dwindled down to 22 birds due to human contamination of the environment.

Humans did this largely through lead poisoning from bullets aimed at murdering and injuring living beings, which were left in the carrion (dead beings) the birds consume to survive as they clean up the environment.

In 1987, the last condor was removed from the wild. With a population of just 27 captive birds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in collaboration with Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo began an intensive breeding and reintroduction program.

It eventually increased the population to more than 500 birds. The release of condors bred in captivity with human care began in 1992. So far about 300 California condors have been re-introduced into the wild. More

Shipping container home: debt-free (video)

Living Big In A Tiny House, Dec. 13, 2019 (livingbiginatinyhouse.com); Jaimie and Dave (livingbiginatinyhouse.com); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Couple build amazing shipping container home for debt-free living

This is so cool for peace and the forest.

This amazing shipping container home is guaranteed to impress! Constructed from one 20 foot and one 40 ft. shipping container, this compact container-home has it all. Enjoy these videos? Consider supporting on Patreon: patreon.com/livingbig.

Built entirely as a DIY (do-it-yourself) project, this home is filled with some amazing features. Jaimie and Dave constructed their home to be beautiful, artistic, and to have everything the couple needs, while fulfilling their dream of living debt- and mortgage-free. Living debt-free is important to this couple, who want to break free of the rat race and be able to live an independent life of their choosing with more options and more freedom. Find out more about this tiny house and others on the website: livingbiginatinyhouse.com.

Jaimie and Dave’s story is one of resilience, love, choosing joy, and overcoming adversity. After Dave suffered a major brain bleed, the couple's dreams of building their own mortgage-free shipping container home were almost shattered.

Together, they pushed through the challenges and the building of their shipping container home actually become part of Dave's physical and mental recovery.

Follow this inspiring couple and learn more about their beautiful home on their website thattinylifelove.com and Instagram page instagram.com/that_tiny_life_love.

• Instagram.com/livingbiginatinyhouse
• Facebook.com/livingbiginatinyhouse
• Twitter.com/tinyhousenz

Subscribe for more videos on tiny houses, architecture, DIY, design, and sustainable, off-grid living. Title music in this video by Bryce Langston: youtube.com/brycelangston. Presented and produced by Bryce Langston. Camera: Bryce Langston and Rasa Pescud. Editing: Rasa Pescud. "Living Big in a Tiny House" © 2019 Zyia Pictures Ltd.

COMMENTS
(Living Big In A Tiny House) It's hard not to be completely in love with the design and construction of this amazing shipping container home. Even more impressive than the home, though, is the couple Jaimie and Dave, who pushed through some tremendous challenges to make their dream come true. This is a story about finding joy, even in adversity.

(Green Goddess) I love how your videos aren’t just tours. It allows people to tell their story from start to finish and explore why every decision they made happened.

(Alison Shanahan) Dave doesn't seem like he's had a stroke, he's very strong and articulate. Having a half built house was obviously a major part of his therapy and a great success. A lovely property.

California Condors; Wild Los Angeles (video)

Associated Press (via mail.com); Seth Auberon, Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Condor chick born in wild flies from nest at California park

PAICINES, California - A California condor chick has hatched in the wild, survived, and flown out of its nest at Pinnacles National Park for the first time since the 1890s, officials said Wednesday.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that the female bird, born in April, is not the first chick to be born in the park. But it is the first to survive long enough to leave the nest and begin its flight to adulthood.

 

"She is staying near the nest, doing lot of practice flights," said Rachel Wolstenholme, condor program manager at Pinnacles.

"Her parents will help her learn how to fly and where to feed and how to interact with the other wild birds out there."

 

Pinnacles is a 26,000-acre park in rural San Benito County about 80 miles south of San Jose. Scientists say it's a success story for North America's largest bird as it continues a slow but steady path from near extinction.

  

California condors once ranged from British Columbia to Mexico [where the rest of California is still located]. Habitat loss, hunting, and lead poisoning from ingesting buckshot [left behind by killers] while feeding on dead animals shot by farmers and hunters led to a massive population dwindle.

 

In 1987, federal biologists captured all remaining wild condors and began breeding them in zoos. The birds' offspring have been gradually released back into the wild. Things are now improving for the condor.

As of December 31st, there were 435 California condors living in zoos and in the wild, an increase of nearly twentyfold over the past 30 years, the newspaper reported. More

• 6-y.-o. boy attacked by coyote playing in Irvine, OC park:

(Cindy Yamanaka, OC Register/SCNG)

Irvine authorities are looking for a coyote that bit a 6-year-old boy at Springbrook Park in Irvine's Woodbridge community in Orange County. It happened around 7:00 pm Sunday when the coyote bit the boy on the arm and tried to drag him away [to devour him for dinner]. The boy's father and bystanders screamed at the coyote, and one woman threw sand. The boy suffered minor cuts and scratches and bites on his arm, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said.

  

Wild, wild Los Angeles

(PM5) Man and dog in Burbank, next to Glendale, chased by wild pack of coyotes.
(Coyotes In Orange County) Coyotes attack small dog in neighboring Orange County

(RMG News wildlife) A large, wild bear has been spotted wandering around the streets of Sierra Madre, a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, California.

(RMG News wildlife) A large mountain lion is captured after wandering around Glendale [a large city between Pasadena and Hollywod, just a few miles from the downtown LA skyline], California

• Buddhist King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-serving head of state, dies at the age of 88