 |
|
||||
|
January 18, 2006
Hello Journey North!
Things have been hopping here in New York with eagles while you were gone, throughout the year, as usual. We’ve had another record year again here, eagle-wise, with 441 eagles tallied during our January 2005 mid-winter bald eagle survey (part of the National survey effort conducted at this time) as well as a record breeding season, with 92 nesting pairs who fledged 112 young in 2005. Now, we are deeply involved in our winter eagle work, capturing and tracking New York wintering eagles.
Let me start with some background on what we are up to currently and who we (you) are tracking.
Immature Eagle News
In 2004 we satellite-tagged 4 fledgling bald eagles. Two of these birds
are no longer transmitting, so they are not included in our study this
year. Both of these eagles came from nests in west-central New York
State. One, Y89, was last heard of on 31 August 2005, in northern Canada
(Labrador), where he had spent the summer. The other, Y90, was last
heard from on 28 October 2005. We can not be certain if these radio
units simply “died” or if these eagles have died; I suspect
the latter, as their PTT’s were functioning perfectly well up
to this time. Obviously, it will be interesting to track our other
youngsters, not only to see where they are going, but to see if and
how long they survive.
Golden
Eagle News
Those of you familiar with Journey North and have followed this project in previous
years will recall we had been tracking two golden eagles, A00 and A20, during
the past winters. Transmitters on both of these eagles have now died. However,
one of
 |
Eagle
biologists Pete Nye(r) and Scott VanArsdale(l) with U21.
|
 |
Kathy
Michell and the newest bird, U25, captured 01/25/06
More news coming soon! |
our research team, Scott VanArsdale, reports A00 has been observed on his usual wintering ground here in New York, along with his mate, and Scott will be attempting to capture one or both of these birds; A00 to remove his transmitter, and his mate to radio-tag her to determine her migratory pathway in relation to A00’s.
Old Trackers and New Birds
Our wintering eagle V98 has already had two complete spring and fall
migrations you can use to compare and look for patterns. Ditto with
P04 as he starts to move this coming spring, compared with what he
did in 2005. Eagle U21 is brand new, and our first satellite-tagged
of this season. As far as I can tell, she is a young adult, so it will
be interesting to see what she does. Bear in mind my usual caution
as we proceed this winter; the eagles we capture could either be winter
visitors who will indeed migrate, or they might be resident eagles
that will stay in the area come spring and breed here; we have no way
of telling. Furthermore, as my Research Goals page states, we are now
launched on a study of Delaware River eagles, and our focus is mostly
on what essential habitats these eagles are using along the Delaware,
winter or summer, so we actually want both breeders and wintering birds.
Scott, Kathy Michell, Sarah Shute, Steve Joule, Kathy Maloney and I
will be out there attempting to capture additional eagles, so wish
us luck. For now, enjoy this photo of Scott and me with U21.
So far, we here in New York have not had much of a winter. Early on
in December we had some snow (and I got some snowboarding in) and cool
temps, but leading into Christmas and now through most of January, we
have had very mild temperatures and mostly totally open waterways.
Thanks for joining with us this year; hope you enjoy it!
Eagleye Nye
New York State Dept. Environmental Conservation
Delmar, NY
Copyright
2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our
feedback form
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
