The flight of the condor

By Deborah RawsonPrint Story | Email Story
Imagine a precocious teenager, set in his ways with specific, favorite belongings, a unique birthmark and his favorite meal being eggs and salmon for Sunday brunch. He sits on the roof of the family minivan and steps to the beat of a drummer you couldn’t possibly begin to understand. Now imagine that same teenager’s diet consisting of an entire frozen chicken a day, meat, fish, eggs, road-kill turkey or deer — and on the rare occasion of a natural disaster at a nearby pheasant farm, pheasant under grass as a special treat. Such is the case for a 17-year old Andean condor that resides in a secret location in the Hudson Valley region. Veedor the condor stands 3 feet tall, weighs 40 pounds and has a wingspan of 9 1/2 feet. A fluffy, white down collar adorns its otherwise bald neck and can be used as a weather barometer — how high up on its neck it wears the collar depends on how cold it is. Veedor’s feathers are tuxedo black, complete with white pinstripes, and the condor has a very special birthmark, one single white feather on its right shoulder. Veedor’s favorite toy is a cardboard box, with which he loves to play his favorite game, tug-of-war. Although native to South America, this incomparable bird of prey lives in Connecticut with trainer and companion John McNeely. McNeely, who graduated with honors from Ohio State University’s School of Natural Resources and has managed wildlife preserves in Ohio, Maryland, New York and Virginia, took on a life-altering challenge in the summer of 1988, when he adopted the enormous bird for rehabilitation and education. He has managed a wildlife preserve in Connecticut for the past 25 years. McNeely had the idea of training the bird for “free-flight” and taking it on educational ventures throughout the region. He said he wanted to inform people of the bird’s existence on the endangered species list, along with other South American and California condors. It is estimated that only about 1,000 Andean condors remain free and flying in the mountains of South America, with only 27 of the California condors known to be in existence anywhere on Earth. The Andean condor is the national bird of five different countries. Veedor was born at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Center for Captive-breeding Endangered Species near Washington, D.C. The bird’s grandparents had been captured in South America in an effort to learn more about the species and help bring back its declining population. A condor’s lifespan is 70 to 80 years, so McNeely’s commitment truly had to be for life. McNeely, a naturalist and ornithologist, adopted the bird when Veedor was a scruffy looking 1-year-old living in a pen at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center “condorminium” in Laurel, Md. “When I first saw him, he was not nearly as heavy, weighing about 20 pounds, and not as handsome as he’s become,” McNeely recalled. “His coat was a muddled, fuzzy gray-brown. His black coat and white neck ruff didn’t develop until about age 4. During the period that his coat color deepened to black, white feathers started showing up, making him look as if he’d accidentally walked across a freshly painted floor when his wings were tight against his sides. Now when he opens his wings, the white spreads up on the secondary feathers.” Due to federal budget cuts and staff reduction at the research center in 1988, in addition to a flurry of phone calls and special permission from the government, everything fell into place for the bird to go live with McNeely. At the time,Veedor was only known as a number, but when McNeely began his 400-mile trek through New England to pick up the bird, he already had a name in mind. “I had read lots of Inca history and research before I left for Maryland,” he said. “I knew I would name the bird Veedor, which means ‘overseer’ in Spanish.” Because Veedor had accidentally been imprinted on humans at an early age, meaning it came to know humans as providers after it was separated from its parents at 9 months old, and because it was raised out of his natural environment, it will forever depend on a keeper for survival. Although McNeely doesn’t believe in caging birds, he said he realized for the bird’s safety he would need to design and construct a suitable permanent residence for him. Friends of McNeely’s got together for a “cage-raising” party, and a 14-foot-wide, 26-foot-long, 13-foot-high housing enclosure was erected for the new arrival. Like movie stars and actors with fans who eagerly await the summer months to see their thespian heroes on local theater festival stages, Veedor has a following of admirers here in the Berkshires as well. “A lot of people know Veedor, and remember him from when he was here 14 years ago for our fall festival,” said Jan Cullen, property manger for Mass Audubon’s Berkshire Sanctuaries. Veedor has since appeared occasionally at other area locales. The bird will return to the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox on Sept. 4, as part of the sanctuary’s 75th anniversary celebration. A slide presentation will begin the program at 1 p.m. before visitors adjourn to the outdoors to watch Veedor take flight. A second slide presentation will follow. Contrary to legend, condors don’t fly off with babies or farm animals. In fact, they physically cannot. Although their talons are extremely large, unlike owls and hawks, they are not designed to grasp live prey. Condors are known to be quite affectionate and generally well tempered. Veedor is no exception and brings personality to the table as well. “He is such a delight,” Cullen said. “He was very mischievous and fun when he was here before.” According to McNeely, Veedor has disabled the van on more than one occasion when he crawled underneath and disconnected some important wiring. Veedor and its handlers have logged in over 200,000 miles traveling by air-conditioned van and are desperately in need of funds for a new vehicle in which to travel, McNeely said. The van is equipped with a “Colossal Dog Crate,” (the largest dog crate available) in which Veedor rides in safety to all his public appearances. The oversized crate is designed to comfortably fit a St. Bernard. Veedor works with four other devoted handlers, including Scott Sinclair and Shannon Kearney, both of Connecticut, and Martha Boll and Robin Brace. All said they fell in love with the big bird upon their first meetings and were thrilled at the rare opportunity to work a condor, especially in this part of the country. “We are the only people this side of Arizona watching a condor flying freely through the sky,” said McNeely during one of Veedor’s recent daily flying exercises. Veedor is the only free-flying trained condor in the entire world. Other condors and raptors may be seen in zoos or other rehabilitation programs, but Veedor holds that one special distinction. Although Veedor was reintroduced to its parents in 1988, according to McNeely, the bird was distracted and showed no signs of recognition. Veedor was also introduced to a female condor in 1995 and 1997 but showed no interest. Donations on behalf of Veedor can be made to The Hudson Valley Raptor Center, c/o John McNeely for Veedor, 89 Westwoods Road #2, Sharon, CT 06069. For ticket information to see Veedor at Pleasant Valley, call 637-0320, or visit www.massaudubon.org.
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Senior Golf Series Returns in September

Community submission
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Berkshire County Fall Senior Golf series returns in September with events on five consecutive Wednesdays starting Sept. 18.
 
It is the 22nd year of the series, which is a fund-raiser for junior golf in the county, and it is open to players aged 50 and up.
 
The series will feature two divisions for each event based on the combined ages of the playing partners.
 
Golfers play from the white tees (or equivalent) with participants 70 and over or who have a handicap of more than 9 able to play from the forward tees.
 
Gross and net prices will be available in each division.
 
The cost is $55 per event and includes a round of golf, food and prizes. Carts are available for an additional fee.
 
Golfers should call the pro shop at the course for that week's event no sooner than two weeks before the event to register.
 
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