Golden Eagle 45

Peggy Riemer

Golden Eagle 45

Telemetry: "Jeanette" Bird 45

Background and Release

Golden Eagle 45 was trapped in Waupaca County, Wisconsin on Wednesday, February 15. We banded and tagged the bird on Thursday and released her around noon. Eagle 45 is a large adult female. She had been feeding on deer carcasses in the area and we caught her on trail cams since the beginning of January. This represents our most eastern capture and it will be very exciting to see where she ends up.

Check out our interactive map highlighting the current migration of Golden Eagle 45.

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MAP ARCHIVES:

Jun 23, 2012 Eagle 45 appears to be nesting. She arrived in Nunavut just over the border from the Northwest Territories on April 3.  Here is a short summary of where she roosted at night.

• Apr 4-10 moving around area in no general pattern
• Apr 6–17 around what I think of as site 1
• Apr 18-Jun 18 – at Site 2, 540m SE of site 1, she spent every evening and almost all day in this “spot”

With one exception we never see out eagles return to the same roost, or hang around a spot all day. The only other bird that did that was also an adult female in spring/early summer.  I have no other explanation for this behavior than nesting. Very interesting that the 2 tracked birds who nested did so very far apart. Jeannette is as far west as we have tracked any bird, and the other bird nested about 30 miles west of the Newfoundland coast, as far east as we have tracked any bird.

Apr 25, 2012 Migration Map Golden Eagle 45 has settled down in Nunavut near the border with the Northwest Territories. Since Apr 6 her end of the day signals have come from a very confined area, although until about a week ago she had some movements around the area. About a week ago her signals moved about 70 meters and we are getting very little daytime data but consistent end of the day data. I am interpreting all this to mean that she is nesting, and being a female we would expect her to be pretty immobile sitting on a nest while incubating eggs.

Apr 10, 2012 Eagle 45 continued her journey north and is now in Nunavut, Canada. She is at 66 degrees north and 111 degrees west. Since April 3 she has remained in an area just a couple of square miles with her evening roosts only a few miles apart. On 3 nights; the 6^th, 7^th, and 9^th she roosted in the same place, something that is very unusual. This may mean she is settling down in this area.

Mar 27, 2012 Golden Eagle 45 continues to move north and west oner spring migration. This bird, as you may remember, is our most recently tagged, and is an adult female. She started moving north from Wisconsin on Feb 17 and has covered 2,211 miles (3,558km) since then. She has gone as far west as any bird we have tracked to date. From Mar 23-27 she was in the very southeastern corner of the Northwest Territories. On the 28^th and 29^th she passed just to the east of Great Slave Lake as she moved north. She has continued across the NW Terr. And on Apr 2 moved into the northern reaches of Nunavut. If she is going to breed this year I would expect her to settle down sometime soon.

Mar 13, 2012 Eagle 45, trapped about a month ago near Waupaca, WI has made a sudden halt to her northward migration. She has spent the past week about 315 miles (500km) north of Lake Winnipeg in the northwest part of Manitoba. She is moving around during the day and using different evening roosts so I have no concern that anything has happened to her. She may be holding up until the weather and snow cover improves, or maybe she is at or near her final destination.

Mar 6, 2012 Eagle 45 has covered 1,260 miles (2,028km) since we released it on Feb 16. It has traveled north then west across Wisconsin, crossed into Minnesota just south of Duluth then continued north into Canada on Feb 25. Since then it has skirted the western edge of Ontario moving north and is now in Manitoba about 300 miles (520km) north of Lake Winnipeg and 275 miles (380 km) west of Hudson Bay (see attachments). It would appear she is heading toward her breeding territory.

Feb 22, 2012 Jeanette's initial move, after being released was about 10 miles north. She remained there the next 1-½ days. Around noon on Feb 18 she started heading N-NW and by the end of the day had covered about 110 miles (175 km) and was near Park Falls in Price County, Wisconsin. On the 19^th she flew another 80 miles  (130km) in the same direction and was in Douglas County by the end of the day. She crossed over into Minnesota, just south of Duluth on the 20^th and ended up around the Sax-Zim Bog, covering about 75 miles (125km) that day. This route is similar those taken by other birds we have tracked from MN and WI. It seems  early to start migration, although this has been a weird winter, and we have not had any other bird we tracked move so far and fast away from the release site. So, I cannot explain what she is doing and we will have to wait and see where she ends up.

Feb 15, 2012. Jeanette's immediate reaction after being released was to leave the area and move about 10 miles north.