one of the oldest Bald Eagles...

Band confirms dead eagle as 1 of Alaska's oldest

In captivity, Bald Eagles can live nearly as long as humans. In the wild, the average life span is less than half of what it is in captivity. So it's interesting to see that one of the oldest known wild Bald Eagles in North America would be electrocuted at the ripe age of 25.

From the article:

"Once they reach that full adult stage - white head, brown body, white tail - you don't have any idea how old they are," said Steve Lewis, coordinator of raptor management for the Alaska region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The oldest eagle in the country was a 32-year-old bird from Maine. Alaska's oldest documented eagle was a 28-year-old from the Chilkat Valley outside Haines. Lewis suspects most eagles don't approach three decades but proving that with leg bands can be haphazard.

"Banding is one of these things, you put a lot of effort into it and you get little return, but the returns you get are really interesting," he said.

From Anchorage Daily News

Baby Pictures

This post was originally featured at seetrail under the title Camp Eagle. It has been slightly edited for relevance. -h

Swapping e-mails with a supportive and enthusiastic researcher certainly does seem reminiscent of swapping family photos - except our exchange started with blurry through-binoculars pictures. Funny, I'd hope that most family photos are a bit more direct than a stealthy drive-by 10x zoom plus 8x42 bins... it's more like espionage than a Christmas card photo.

Still, in a way it's like having an old friend and comparing baby pictures:



A photo of Anakin enjoying a ride in the jeep. Awww.

And here's Brian's little one:



Here's a pic from the day she was fitted with an transmitter. The falconry hood assists in keeping the eaglet calm during the fitting process.

Since this project is ultimately not hands-on except for the fitting, it's neat to see that others contribute photos as well:



Photographed in South Miami-Dade county. [...] The eaglet sighting and photograph was taken by Katy Raits in November 2007.

...it's exciting to hear back about the bird you've spotted, but it's remarkably awesome to know that the life history of the critter is not only being documented, but shared with innocent bystanders who take the time and effort to look into the sightings. I guess that makes us part of the "Camp Eagle" fan club - and by extension, our readers get to be subjected to our enthusiastic whims :)

Perhaps other couples experience this kind of nostalgia, when they open an e-mail from a researcher whose bird they saw... two weeks ago. Hey, you've gotta start somewhere!

When looking at a Bald Eagle with a fully white head and tail, you know the bird is at least 4 years old; young ones have varying degrees of light patches but are predominantly dark.

Eagles and bands and collars, oh my!

Edit: this post is from SeeTrail, where it was originally posted as "eagles with accessories"

Here's a post for the technophiles among us:



"It's just a map," you say. Of course it's a map, that's how people learn things!



...and now you're accusing me of posting the blurry rump of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). That accusation stands true as well. What doesn't show up in that photo is a little pack that is attached to the bird - and transmits information about the bird's geographic movement to a researcher named Brian.

Brian Mealey is the Executive Director, and thus primary researcher, when it comes to radio-collared Bald Eagles in the Everglades. There's even a page on the site that gives you a sample pair of eagle "tracks" from previous years.

We found Brian via the Tropical Audubon Society bird board, when I posted this query:
Ok, I know we bugged out of SE FL a while ago, but we were reviewing
pictures and one of the Bald Eagles in a fallow field along 997 (I
think that's the road north from Everglades NP to Hwy 41 and 75?) had
a transmitter on its back.

USGS doesn't have a category for reporting collared eagles, perhaps
y'all know of a local project?

In no time at all, "tricia" had responded to my post with:
It is probably one of Brian Mealey's birds.
follow this link and you can email him.
http://www.instwildlifesciences.org/eaglemain.html

So much for my own sleuthing! At least we had enough information from our sighting to e-mail Brian and sound more intelligent than "we saw an eagle and it had an antenna on it" - I'm sure researchers get that a lot.



Matt pointing to the Bald Eagle in a fallow field - there were also White Ibis, Black-necked Stilts, Laughing Gulls, American Crows, and Boat-tailed Grackles present. Then a tractor scared them. Sigh.

My e-mail to Brian:
My husband and I were on our way from Everglade NP back to hwy 41 and
maybe a mile south of the "Robert is here" fruit stand on 997, we
passed a fallow field with two eagles. One of them had a transmitter
backpack - since we didn't see bands or wing tags, I'm not sure that
the sighting is of any use to you, since the transmitter is probably
working... just wanted to say that it was quite a highlight on our
trip =) Exact date would be 7/28/09, I'd have to get back to you on
what time in the afternoon, though.

Brian's enthusiastic response:
Thank you Heidi!

Always useful and it great to know that folks are always on the look
out for wildlife!

I'm attaching a map of the most recent movement of Camp Eagle (56105)
includes your sighting.

Camp Eagle was banded as a nestling (about 50 days old) and fitted
with a transmitter back in March 2005! She's beating the odds of
survival!!!!! Yeah!

[truncated here -h]

If that first map wasn't nifty enough, here's the detailed map of SE FL activities during the time that Matt and I saw "Camp Eagle" (when was the last time you could put the name to a bird you were watching? ...on a project that's not yours??)



This map is infinitely cool, not just because it shows ample movement in the protected zone of Everglades National Park and tracks adventures east of Homestead, but because it even highlights the fruity awesomeness that is the "Robert is Here" fruit stand! And of course, we were just a bit south of "Robert is Here" when we saw "Camp Eagle," so our story has been validated with a bit of telemetry handiwork.

In the meantime, Brian reports that he is in the midst of analysis and manuscript work, so at some point in the near future, we'll get to find out what information "Camp Eagle" contributed by toting around the transmitter.

the inspiration

Be sure to check out the "Welcome" page - it has information on how to report banded and tagged birds! Otherwise, discussion and history is fair game.


Here are a few stories of reports past, ones that inspired us to collect information and share with other curious minds:

A Dove and a Pelican from Big Country Audubon (TX)

eagles with accessories and Camp Eagle from Seetrail (FL)

Edit: "eagles with accessories" has been reposted in this blog as "Eagles and bands and collars, oh my!"

Appleton to Alamo; 1,482 miles by pelican & Jeff and pelicans from Seetrail (TX)