Eagle Update

The past couple weeks have seen few changes in the places our GPS tagged eagles have been traveling. The females are still seemingly content to stay on the Chilkat, while the males are still southward in and around Prince Rupert.

The adult female, 3E, and the immature female, 4P, are both right around the area we initially caught them:

3E

4P

The mature male, 3C, is still moving around a bit, bouncing eastward, then westward again, then a bit to the southeast, though he is still near Prince Rupert. You can see pretty clearly on this image how he has been following waterways closely as he travels.

3C

The immature male, 2Z, has now been in Prince Rupert for more than a month. This may be where he stays until spring. It seems 2Z is spending time feeding at a landfill near the city. Since he is a younger bird, he may not be able to compete with other eagles for better food sources (e.g. fish), or perhaps his hunting skills aren't quite up to scratch. Whatever the reason, doesn't appear to be following the salmon, but rather, the dump truck.

2Z

In the upper right hand corner of the photo above, you can see a little portion of 3C's track, where the two birds were near one another for a short time.

Trivia Question of the Week

This week's trivia question is appropriately related to eagle migration: How far do bald eagles migrate?

Hint #1: It's not nearly as far as an arctic tern. 

Hint #2: We've determined these distances through the use of leg bands and telemetry.

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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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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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