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Bald Eagle Migration Update: March 12, 2003
Today's Report Includes:
- Latest Satellite Data and Map
- Field Notes from Peter Nye
- A Video Greeting from Eagle Eye Nye
- A Day in the Field With Peter Nye
- Early Birds? Not Compared to the Biologists!
- Meeting Kathy: Chef to the Eagles
- Keep on Truckin' (Or, Waiting All Day in the Truck)
- Reading Strategy Spotlight: Identify and Analyze Text Structure
- Satellite Backpack Fashion Show
- How Heavy are Satellite Backpacks? Challenge Question #8
- A Daylight Look at the Trapping Equipment
Latest Satellite Data and Map
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Link to Latest Data:
Hello All,
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The tension grows now each time I open up the data and scan the latitude and longitude readings, as some of our eagles could start moving any day now. However, just finishing up the latest that I include here, all of the birds still seem to be where they've been; no movements yet! The sun is higher in the sky each day, and the daylight lasts longer. And yes, even the temperatures are starting to creep up, finally! Any day now! Who do you think will start moving first? Last?
We are still trying to deploy one more PTT (platform transmitter terminal - a fancy name for our satellite radio transmitters) yet this season, but it is winding down fast. We are attempting to capture another golden eagle, one of two that appear to be annual winter residents in Delaware County, New York. Scott VanArsdale and Kathy Michell will be out well before dawn again on Tuesday, with a fresh turkey carcass placed in front of our rocket-net (the preferred food of these two golden eagles). Hopefully, they will have a story to write about to you all!
'till then,
Eagleye.
A Video Greeting from Eagle Eye Nye
"Hi Kids, I'm Pete Nye with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. And it's a great opportunity to say hello to you live and on video here, " begins Pete.
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Link to Video and Full Transcript |
A Day in the Field With Peter Nye
Alas, we did NOT catch an eagle. However, it's hard to be disappointed after a day in the field with Peter Nye. If life delivers lessons to those in need of learning, here was mine: It takes tremendous patience and perseverance to conduct successful field research. By his wife's calculations, Pete comes home empty-handed 80% of the times he goes trapping. I admired Pete's unflagging optimism, especially when dog-tired at the end of the day.
The second lesson I learned was less profound, but helped me understand our lack of success on Wednesday: Bald eagles don't eat every day, even when there's a tasty banquet before them. Catching a wild and wary bald eagle is not an easy task! The following are highlights of the field day:
Early Birds? Not Compared to the Biologists!
We were on the road at 2:30 am, but nobody felt tired with the excitement of the day ahead. The drive from Albany to the Mongaup Reservoir was under three hours, even with one unscheduled stop. At 4:05, in-the-middle-of-nowhere, Pete suddenly hit the brakes. "Kathy will love this," he said as he jumped from the truck. Eagle Eye Nye had spotted what any eagle would: A freshly killed deer on the side of the road. I helped him hoist it into the back of the truck, and off we went.
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We reached the Reservoir at 5 am. I helped Pete push the heavy sled containing the rocket net onto the ice, impressed to realize he normally does this alone. The headlamps we wore spot-lit the scene: Deer carcasses everywhere, in various stages of consumption. Pete kept saying how good they looked. He replaced the "dummy" rocket net box with the real one. (This was one of the many efforts I noted the biologists make to keep the environment constant, so the eagles wouldn't be too wary to feed.) It took awhile to attach the rockets' wires to the long white cord that would extend across the snow to the firebox battery on shore. Pete stopped several times and blew on his bare hands to warm them. Within 20 minutes the gear was in place and we left the ice. The silent night was broken just before dawn with coyotes and wild turkeys calling and echoing back from the surrounding hills, surprisingly wild sounds only 100 miles from New York City.
Meeting Kathy: Chef to the Eagles
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Kathy Michell drove up in the dark, the back of her pickup filled with road-killed deer carcasses that she'd collected herself. "Check out these two wild turkeys," she reported proudly to Pete. (The turkeys would be used to bait golden eagles.) Kathy Michell is energy personified. She's fueled by a regular diet, plus a six-pack of Hershey bars each day. Her stream-of-consciousness chatter goes on throughout the day, making everybody smile and comfortable with her.
Kathy has been working with Pete since 1999. She described her responsibilities (see video): "When we come out to trap, one of my jobs is to get the area ready, which means trying to get the eagles to feed there. So I take dead deer out and put them on the ice. I keep putting them out every day for a couple of weeks until Pete is ready to come down and trap, and then the birds are accustomed to feeding there." Kathy puts out 100 carcasses between mid-December and mid-March, which works out to almost one per day. Pete was quick to point out that the purpose of baiting is research, not feeding eagles. Eagles are so wary, they'd be impossible to catch if not accustomed to feeding in the area.
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Link to Video and Full Transcript |
"It's me that gets to holds the birds, while Pete puts the transmitters on," added Kathy. "Take a close look at those beaks and the feet. They can't puncture through my coat, but I end up with a nice bruise. But it's fun to tell everybody that an eagle bit me."
Keep on Truckin' (Or, "Waiting All Day in the Truck")
Pete, Kathy and I sat in the cab of the stationary truck, with a good view of the bait on the opposite shore. As if driving down the road, we'd spend the day watching the scene change before us. It was just getting light when we parked a little after 6. The first crow called at 6:15. The first eagle, an immature bird, flew up from the roost downstream at 6:40. It headed directly toward the bait. But instead of landing, it rose up to the branch of a tall pine on shore beyond. "True to form," noted Pete. "They're always loafing, wary, and only go to the bait when they're REALLY sure it's safe." By 7:35 am, we had 10 eagles in the vicinity. I was more than hopeful.
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The rest of day went like this: We looked out the windows in all directions for eagles. We watched activity near the bait carefully. Pete recorded details in his yellow field notebook. I record other details in mine. We ate. We caught up on news in the outside world, and the news in each other's worlds. Hours went by...More eating, more observing, more writing, a little more reading, more eating. Each time we ate, I became more and more certain the eagles had to be hungry themselves. But by mid-afternoon, the 10 eagles we'd seen in the early morning were long since gone. Their behavior all day indicated other interests to Pete. "This is late in the season," he said. "Their hormones are going and they just want to get going."
We finally gave up in mid-afternoon. We gathered the rocket net and firebox, got back into the truck and returned to Albany. Here are the notes I took about the many interesting things that were seen and said during the day.
Reading Strategy Spotlight: Identify and Analyze Text Structure
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Satellite Backpack Fashion Show
I asked Pete to show me how the backpacks are attached to the eagle. Here are pictures we took as I modeled the backpack:
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How Heavy are Satellite Backpacks?
Challenge Question #8
Each PTT package weighs approximately 100 grams (3.5 oz.). This is less than 2 percent of the body weight of an average bald eagle.
Challenge Question #8:
"If you wore a backpack that weighed 2% of your body weight, how heavy would your backpack be?"
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)
A Daylight Look at the Trapping Equipment
These photos were taken while we packed up the gear:
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Can You Find?
- Gun powder packets put inside the rockets
- The rocket net and rockets, and how the rocket net works?
- The firebox with remote control.
- Deer carcasses on ice, to bait the eagles.
- Eagle leg bands. The blue band indicates a New York banded bird. If we'd caught a bird, it would have worn a number in the "N" series.
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question:
1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-eagle@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #8
3. In the body of EACH message, answer ONE of the questions above.
The Next Bald Eagle Migration Update Will Be Posted on March 19, 2003
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