Eagle Nest Camera!

Check out this live-streaming footage of a bald eagle nest in Southwest Florida! The two adult bald eagles, dubbed Ozzie and Harriet, are raising two chicks. One chick hatched on January 1st, and the other made it out of the shell January 3rd. Both parents will care for these babies, sharing the responsibility of hunting for food and keeping them warm. The nestlings will probably stay in the nest until March, so you'll have plenty of time to watch them grow.

Check it out!

http://www.ustream.tv/SouthwestFloridaEagleCam

Trivia Question of the Week

After a one-week hiatus for the holidays (Happy New Year's, everyone!) we're back. This week's trivia question: How many feathers does a bald eagle have?

Hint #1: The average person has about twice as many hairs on their head alone as an eagle has feathers on its entire body.

Hint #2: Just because it's called a "bald" eagle doesn't mean it's actually bald. Bald eagles have feathers on their heads, too.

Hint #3: Eagles have relatively few wing and tail feathers. The long feathers on the wings used for flight? Only 23 on each wing. The tail feathers? 12.

Hint #4: Most of the feathers on an eagle's body are contour feathers, small feathers that give eagles their shape, and down.

Hint #5: The colder the region, the more down feathers an eagle is likely to have. So an bald eagle in Florida probably has fewer total feathers than an Alaskan eagle.

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If you guessed that bald eagles have an average of 7,000 feathers, right on! This number varies seasonally, as well. During the molting season and in the height of summer, when the weather is warmer, eagles have fewer total feathers because of the loss of down.

Updates: Eagles, 4N, t-shirts

It's time for some updates! First off, a look at where our four GPS-tagged eagles have been hanging out.

Not much has changed in the past couple weeks. Both females, 3E and 4P, continue to spend their time along the Chilkat River. We're beginning to wonder if both of these birds might be residents. There is still plenty of time for them to leave the area and travel southward, but for now it seems as if they are both perfectly happy sticking near Klukwan.

3E:

Read more »

Eagle Update!

Although 4N's tag is out of commission, we still have four birds to follow! We're always excited to see where these eagles are moving, and we hope you are, too.

First up, the females! Both females, 3E, the adult, and 4P, the immature eagle, have been sticking around the Chilkat Valley.

3E has made a couple trips to the ridgeline south of the Chilkat, but is otherwise hanging out around the area between 19- and 21-mile on the Haines Highway-- pretty much the only region of the Chilkat River that is unfrozen this time of year:

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4N

Rigby and I are back in Santa Cruz, adjusting to things we haven't seen in a while-- stoplights, traffic, and sunshine, just to name a few. We've finally managed to get internet up and running in our new place, so it's back to blogging!

Today's entry focuses on one of the more frustrating aspects of working with wild animals: data loss. So far, we've been getting pretty reliable information from the GPS tags on our eagles, but the data are not without problems. Since the tags are solar powered, they need to have reliable sunshine to keep the battery charged and the device functioning. In southeast Alaska, where snow is a daily occurrence and daylight hours are rapidly diminishing, it's tough for the tags to get the juice they need. This is complicated by the fact that the Chilkat River is surrounded on both sides by relatively steep mountain ranges. Even when the sun does come out, much of the river is still in shadow.

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Southward Bound

It's hard to believe, but it's been exactly four months since Rigby and I arrived in Haines on the ferry from Prince Rupert. From the Southeastern Alaska State Fair, to hiking Mt. Ripinsky and the trails in Chilkat State Park, to learning about spawning salmon, subsistence fishing and canning, to setting out trail cameras and finally, trapping and tagging bald eagles, the last four months have been filled with a host of new experiences and opportunities. And bears.

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Where are they now? (cont.)

The male eagles we tagged, 3C and 2Z, have been busy! Unlike the females, the males have been traveling around a bit more. We suspect this is because males, who are significantly smaller than the females, aren't able to compete as well for food.

3C, the adult male, is still in the Chilkat Valley, although he's been wandering away from the river itself:

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Where are they now?

The great thing about attaching satellite transmitters to our eagles is that the information is fed to us on a regular basis. If the eagles leave the area, we won't have to worry about tracking them by foot or in a plane-- the satellites will download the GPS locations of the birds and we can access the information online. Our transmitters collect a GPS location every hour during daylight, and we receive a list of the locations every two to four days. This means that we're already seeing where our eagles are moving!

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Trivia Question of the Week

Last week, when we posted about the capture and processing of bald eagles, we mentioned that, up until five years of age, eagle molting patterns can be used to determine how old a bird is. Past five years of age, when eagles reach adulthood and take on the characteristic appearance of their species, with a white head and tail, it's impossible to tell how old they are. So, how long do bald eagles live?

Hint #1: The fact that eagles don't mature until five years of age suggests that they're fairly long-lived-- animals that live shorter lives mature earlier.

Read more »

Meet the eagles!

Get ready to meet our eagles! We captured five eagles on the Chilkat River this year, and we'll be tracking their movements from now until the transmitters fail (or fall off, or the eagle... dare I say it?... dies)(Which is not going to happen. I hope.). If all goes as planned, we'll see the daily movement patterns of these eagles for at least the next three years! We can't wait to see where they spend their time during different parts of the year.

We captured our first eagle late morning on Saturday, November 3rd, using the ballistic net. A sick juvenile eagle couldn't resist the free food in front of our net launcher, and began to feed. An adult eagle came and roused the juvenile off the bait, and fed in its place. The result? We netted our first bird, a healthy, hefty adult female!

4N, just after being freed from the net

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To Catch a Predator (Part 2)

Our snares are set, our net is at the ready, and we've been standing around in the snow since dawn, waiting for the eagles to come in. We keep a close eye on our snares and bait with binoculars and spotting scopes.

Each time an eagle nears a perch we've erected, or flies over the bait in front of our net launcher, we hold our breaths. Typically, the eagle moves on, or perches nearby. We sigh, and wait for the next close encounter.

Then, unexpectedly, an eagle flies down and lands next to the chum carcass set out in front of our ballistic net. It looks around, cautiously, before beginning to feed. We wait until the eagle has its head down, focused on tearing a nice, juicy bit of chum off the carcass, and then-- "Fire!" We trigger the ballistic net remotely, and the .22 gauge blanks power three padded projectiles, launching the net from its housing out and over the bird.

"We got it!"

Everything is a rush. We sprint from the roadside, where we've been watching, down the river embankment to our freshly-netted eagle. We must move quickly, to ensure that the eagle doesn't escape from the net, or get too tangled. Immediately, we secure the talons of the eagle in our hands, and place a hood over its eyes. Eagles receive most of their sensory information visually, so when they can see what we're doing, they get stressed. With the hood on, however, they immediately calm down, and are relatively docile in the hand. Unlike many mammals, birds do not need to be anesthetized during handling. The hood keeps the eagles calm enough.

We then begin the process of extracting the eagle from the net. Here, Steve Lewis and Dr. Scott Ford work the netting off the eagle's wings.

Steve and Scott work the netting off the eagle

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To Catch a Predator (Part 1)

We just finished six intense days of eagle captures! In the coming week, we'll be posting several entries and many photos of our adventures, so check back often. Aided greatly by raptor biologist Steve Lewis of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Dr. Scott Ford, an avian veterinarian, our efforts netted five total eagles, so we were able to deploy all of our satellite tags!

Eagles surveying the Chilkat River

As the weather turns chillier and the rivers begin to freeze, more and more eagles are congregating along a small stretch of the Chilkat River that hosts open, flowing water. This two- to three-mile stretch of river stays unfrozen year-round as a result of unique geology-- groundwater percolating upward from natural springs near the confluence of the Tsirku, Klehini, and Chilkat Rivers maintains water temperatures just above freezing. Eagles come to this area to access chum and coho salmon. When rivers freeze elsewhere, this spot is one of the only places eagles can find a meal!

Read more »

Coming soon...!

Things have been quiet here on the blog lately, but don't worry. There's a reason. A very good reason, in fact.

We've been out. Working from dawn to dusk. Trapping bald eagles.

Yep.

More soon- with plenty of pictures!

More Trail Camera Photos!

This latest series of trail camera photos comes to you courtesy of the Herman Creek Chum salmon run. Coho and Chum are pretty much the only salmon running this time of year. Coho are a little harder to come by, so anything that's eating salmon is probably going to be eating Chum.

Like these bears:

Or these. How many bears do you see in this photo?

Did you count four? There are the two obvious ones, then part of a third on the right edge of the frame, and part of a sneaky fourth behind the branches along the left edge of the frame.

Here is a less sneaky adult eagle:

and some mergansers and a raven at that same site:

We had a couple coyotes in this set. Here's one of them:

Eagle party! More eagles have been arriving every day. There is a citizen science group in Haines that does weekly eagle counts. Last weekend the tally was 775. It won't be too much longer before there are thousands.

Take a look at this handsome youngster:

We also have some ravens fighting over scraps.

Another photo of a wolf!

And our first moose photo! Well, sort of, anyway.

This last one is tricky. Along the bottom part of the frame in the middle, there is another "first" camera sighting. A rodent! It's impossible to identify the species, or get much beyond "rodent-like small animal." But there it is! Maybe not quite as grand as the brown bears, wolves, and eagles, but I think it's fun to see them just the same.

Trivia Question of the Week

With plenty of eagles here already and more on the way, this week's question is appropriately eagle-themed.

What is the grip strength of an adult bald eagle?

Hint #1: The tendons in bird's legs have tiny ridges on them that interlock with the tendon sheaths when flexed, holding the talons closed without any additional effort on the part of the bird. Ever wonder why birds don't fall off branches while they're sleeping? It's because the tendons in their feet are locked in place.

Hint #2: The largest species of eagle in the world, the Harpy Eagle, has enough grip strength to crush the bones of large mammals.

Hint #3: Bald eagles may not be able to crush large mammal bones, but they can definitely do some damage to a human wrist.

Hint #4: Their grip strength allows them to pull salmon equal to their own weight from the water.

Hint #5: An eagle's grip strength is more than 10 times that of a human hand.

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If you guessed 400 pounds per square inch (psi), then you are a true ornithology nerd champion and know far more about bald eagles than is healthy anyone else. The grip strength of the average adult human, by comparison, is only about 20 psi.

Autumn

This past Saturday, the 22nd, was the official first day of autumn. Having grown up in Colorado, autumn has long been my favorite season. Autumn days in the Rockies are mild, sunny, and warm, a wonderful relief from the blisteringly hot days of summer. Nights are crisp and cool. And the colors! Aspen, cottonwood, willow, and maple turning stunning shades of yellow. I missed autumn a lot when I moved to California.

Fall weather in northern California is nice, too. Sunny, not as much fog in the mornings, and warm. But most deciduous trees there keep their leaves year-round, the evenings aren't cool, and there is no nip in the air that suggests impending snow. It's just doesn't feel right. :\

Luckily for me, Alaskan autumns are a lot like Colorado (except with more clouds, humidity, and rain). Gorgeous colors, blankets of yellow, orange, and the occasional red, have spread across the landscape these past few weeks. Temperatures have dropped. Some afternoons, when the breeze is right, you can stand in a shower of gold as leaves falling from trees catch the pale sunlight.

I love autumn.

The eagles are arriving! Each day more and more eagles appear along the Chilkat, staked out on the river flats to feed on the first of the Chum. What makes for a better photograph than golden cottonwood leaves, blue mountains, and an eagle?

For a couple weeks, the weather here was overcast and rainy almost every day. We literally did not see the sun shine for ten days or more. A bit depressing, and a sure sign of the winter to come. Luckily, late September has been kind to us, and we've hit a string of wonderfully sunny days. It's nice to see some blue sky again!

Before the snow travels low enough in altitude to make mountain travel tricky, we decided to make one last trip up to the alpine tundra. Here is a view of the Klehini River from Flower Mountain. Autumn colors make their way into the highest reaches here-- just look at those deep reds of the low-growing plants. Tundra soils are thin (four inches or less in some places), but vegetation still manages to take hold. Alpine berries, willow, lichens, and scraggly, stunted spruce make their homes here, providing food for mountain goats, moose, songbirds, and alpine ground squirrels.

Quite a view, eh?

With a string of sunny days, we've also been making good use of the raft. Rafting down the Klehini affords us opportunities to set trail cameras south and west of the Chilkat, where we see evidence in tracks of moose, wolves, and the ever-present bear. There are plenty of eagles on the Klehini as well!

Mountains, river, blue sky, and birch, cottonwood, alder, and willow changing colors? Alaska, you are wonderful.

And eagles! More and more eagles! The yellow background of these cottonwood leaves may be a bit distracting in this photo, but the colors sure do make it stand out.

Alaska isn't the only pretty place this time of year. Canada has its fair share of gorgeous locales, too. How about this view of Dezadeash Lake, in the Yukon Territory?

Or this lovely little trail, on the route back from St. Elias Lake in Kluane National Park?

Not enough autumn for you? Oh, all right. Here's one last picture: The Tatshenshini Valley.

Be honest now-- who's in the mood for pumpkins, cider, sweaters, or a bit of Halloween fun? Butternut squash ravioli? Homemade applesauce? Pumpkin-spice latte?

Or how about, for those of you lucky enough to live in places where there's an actual autumn, a bit of time spent outdoors enjoying the leaves.

The Chum are Coming!

Over the past couple weeks, the Sockeye runs have been slowing down. Most of the Sockeye in the spawning areas have now died, and few new Sockeye appear each day. Carcasses litter the streams, ponds, and banks. We've gradually seen less activity on our trail cameras-- fewer bears are visiting key feeding areas, and we come across fewer partially consumed carcasses along bear trails. But the bears have no need to be concerned. There are plenty of other fish in the stream!

Pink salmon are still running, although their numbers have decreased, too. Coho salmon also continue to spawn, but spawn in much lower densities and across larger areas than Sockeye, so it's more difficult to locate their spawning grounds. The bears' next big target, though (and ours, too, for our trail cameras) are the Chum. Just last week, there were only a few fish in this spawning channel off of Herman Creek. Already, the densities are quickly increasing:

Chum salmon are also called Dog and Keta. Keta is the name typically used by canning companies (after all, who wants to eat "chum" anyway?). Chum and Pink salmon are the least commercially valuable fish. Most commercial fishing and canning operations prefer King and Sockeye, but many subsistence fishers in this region like Chum just fine-- especially when smoked, fresh-caught Chum has good flavor.

Chum salmon spawn in autumn, from roughly the end of August through the winter, or at least until the rivers freeze enough to prevent their travel upstream. Chum spawn by the hundreds of thousands, and much like Sockeye they pack themselves into their spawning areas. Chum can pack themselves in even greater densities than the Sockeye. Sockeye are limited by available fry rearing habitat-- once their eggs hatch the young salmon fry need suitable places to grow for a year or two before migrating to sea. Thus, Sockeye need good places to lay their eggs that are also in areas fit for little fish to grow.

Chum, however, are limited only by spawning habitat. Their fry migrate to sea more or less immediately after hatching. Chum salmon don't need to find suitable places for their fry to grow, only good spots for the eggs to hatch. As long as they can locate nice, rocky substrate with good water flow, they can spawn, so Chum find whatever spawning habitat is available, even if there are already hundreds of other fish around. This makes them easy for wildlife to access. Just walk up to the water and grab one!

With the weather quickly cooling and the Chum beginning to run, the eagles are beginning to congregate. We've started to see far more eagles around Haines recently. Gradually over the next month, the water level of the Chilkat River will drop, exposing the river flats and providing many shallow areas for wildlife to access fish. The Chum run will increase, until the braided areas of the Chilkat are packed with fish. And, as temperatures continue to decrease and freezing begins elsewhere along the coast and in the interior, more and more eagles will travel to Haines to feast on Chum through the beginning of winter.

We will continue to set our trail cameras out to capture wildlife feeding on salmon. At the end of this week, we will take down our last set of trail cameras from the Sockeye runs, and, starting next week, will set our cameras on Chum spawning areas and on higher elevation wildlife trails. Once the eagles begin arriving en mass, we will also start working on the second part of our research here-- looking into eagle migratory behavior!

More Trail Camera Photos

We've had our trail cameras up for just two weeks, and we've already been getting some great photos. Check out some pictures from our most recent download!

As usual, there are A LOT of bears:

 Look at the size of that Sockeye!

Who's there!?

Someone needs to lay off the salmon....

It's not all bears, though! Look at this raven and great blue heron:

And my personal favorite picture of the week-- we had a couple of wolves stop by! Here's a shot of one of them:

First Trail Camera Photos!

Take a look at what we've been seeing with our trail cameras! As to be expected, there is a lot of bear activity this time of year. But at the cameras we're setting a short distance away from the river, we're seeing some smaller carnivores, too!

Bear! Look at that fish!

 Look who's checking out the salmon carcass!

  

Hey bear!

 Stretch those wings, eagle!

 

Success!

 Do you think it sees the camera?

 Cub! And mama, of course.

Yes! A rotting fish carcass! Oh, wait.... 

It's all about the salmon!

Hello everyone! We have just four days left for our Kickstarter project. If you haven't had a chance to donate, please contribute now! We're 61% of the way to reaching our funding goal, and time is running out! Tell friends, family, and colleagues about our project and help to fund scientific research!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our talk yesterday evening at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum! We had a great time discussing our research, showing our photos and videos, and interacting with everyone from the community. We really appreciate your support, and we hope you'll continue to check in with us as we gear up for the start of our field season at the end of July!

One of the major points we reviewed is how important salmon are to terrestrial wildlife, and how little we still know about how much salmon different species, including bald eagles, bears, wolves, coyotes, marten, and others, need to survive.

Historically, millions of salmon spawned up freshwater streams from the ocean, provisioning human and wildlife communities. However, land use changes, such as increasing urbanization and agricultural conversion, as well as overfishing, climate change, and water contamination, have adversely impacted salmon populations, and salmon have disappeared from greater than 40% of their historic range.

Fewer salmon in freshwater streams means less terrestrial wildlife, but we're still working to learn more about precisely how salmon availability affects wildlife communities. For example, what would happen if a large salmon run, such as the yearly chum salmon run in early winter on the Chilkat River, disappeared?

We can always speculate about what might happen if a large proportion of the salmon were lost, but we may find out first-hand within the next decade. Constantine Metals, LLC, has staked a mining claim just upstream of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve near Haines, Alaska, home of one of the largest annual congregations of Bald Eagles in North America. Upwards of 3,000 eagles or more feed at one time on salmon between late October and mid-November on the Preserve. The claim, to be developed as a copper, zinc, gold and silver mine spanning more than 90 square kilometers, could threaten salmon and all the wildlife that feed on them. Although mining generates economic revenue and provides jobs to local workers, mining processes have high environmental costs. Leaching of toxic heavy metals, cyanide poisoning, erosion, fugitive dust emissions, and contamination of soil and groundwater all threaten ecosystems near mines. It's not hard to imagine that these impacts would be detrimental to salmon populations.

As part of our research, we hope to collect baseline data on wildlife community composition and species diversity and abundance, as well as conduct experiments to help better understand salmon consumption and the salmon requirements of terrestrial carnivores. These data will be invaluable if any mines are implemented in the future-- we'll be able to use the data we collect now to help understand exactly how mines affect the local environment in the future.