Bald Eagle Migration Update: February 5, 2003 Today's Report Includes:
Welcome Back to Bald Eagle Biologist Peter Nye
Field Notes from Peter Nye Dear
Students,
We already have 5 eagles "on-line" for you to help us follow. Four are last year's bald eagles (two adult females and adult two males) who have now completed their round trip migration. In addition, we are tracking an immature golden eagle that was captured last March. We hope to deploy at least one or two new satellite transmitters this winter, on either bald or golden eagles, so stay tuned!
Looking Back at Fall Migration Counting All Eagles: Mid-winter Bald Eagle Survey We conducted our mid-winter survey in New York on January 7. My helicopter portion in southeast NY counted 234 eagles. This is amazing! Especially when you consider that when I started doing these surveys in 1978 the eagle counts were only in the 20’s! Noteworthy was the number of immature eagles this year: Of the 234 eagles counted, 90 were adults and 144 were immatures. This is a record, and good indication of healthy production. Interested students can read more about the U.S. National Bald Eagle Mid-winter Survey on the web. It should be another exciting and busy winter. Thanks for joining us! Eagleye Nye Peter E. Nye
Why Count Manatees, Monarchs and Eagles in the Winter?
Journey North works with scientists who study the migrations of all kinds of creatures. As happens every year, this January biologists surveyed the populations of Florida's manatees, Mexico's monarchs and the United States' bald eagles.
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Do All Bald Eagles Migrate? However, the individual eagles we are tracking with Peter Nye do follow the conventional migration pattern. As you can see on the fall migration map above, they nest in Canada and migrate south for the winter. Other bald eagles--including some in New York--don't migrate at all. These are called "resident" eagles. So you can see that, within a single species, there is variation. The behavior of all individual eagles is not the same. All species have variation among individuals, and this is one of the great challenges scientists face when studying a species. Keep individual variation in mind as you track Peter Nye's four eagles. Be careful whenever you generalize based on a small sample size. The Big Question: Why Migrate? Every year, Journey North students tend to ask the most fundamental question about migration. So here it is for you to consider:
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Tips for Teachers: Are YOU Ready for the Migration? Eagle migration typically begins in March in New York. Until then we'll focus on the eagles' over-wintering behavior. You may want to use this time to develop the mapping skills your students will need to track the migration. Here are some tips and background lessons to help you get ready:
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:
1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-eagle@learner.org
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