Camellia's location, Buddy training update, sad news at Turtle Bay nest, pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle

There is a new location for Camellia posted on the CCB's Eagle Trak. There is no location for Azalea. I checked Seaturtle and her location isn't shown. I've seen this happen before -- I guess their data doesn't all download from the satellite at the same time. Just guessing. We'll just have to wait to see if she checks in. I'm figuring we should have a fix on her by tomorrow. NX hasn't checked in since 3/14. It's normal for her to miss checking in as she wanders in and out of areas that have cell coverage.

Raina has posted a training update for Buddy! His training seems to be coming along nicely. If you have any questions about Buddy's training, here's your chance: Raina and Dr Dave are going to be on WCV's moderated discussion at noon tomorrow (3/21). You can ask questions then, or you can ask questions in advance and then read back later. The link to the moderated discussion is included in the training update.

Disturbing news out of the Turtle Bay (Redding, California) nest. One of the Eaglets had hatched, but the next morning it was killed by an adult. Intruder Bald Eagles will kill offspring in a nest to reduce competition for resources or to make room for their own offspring if they are trying to take over the territory/nest and remaining mate. There is some speculation that it was one of the parents that killed the Eaglet. But there has been an intruder in the area for a couple of weeks, which I think played a role. I am speculating that something happened to one of the residents, maybe in a conflict with the intruder. Or perhaps the resident went away when the intruder appeared, as happened at the Norfolk nest in '08. This story points out that one of the residents stopped coming to the nest to help with incubation and stopped bringing food to the nest after the intruder arrived -- about two weeks prior. I think the remaining resident probably gave up on trying to handle all of the nesting duties alone. It doesn't help that the camera isn't pointed correctly at the nest. We may never know what happened at this nest... I've seen a lot of disclaimers on nest cams recently, that the cams show what happens, sometimes it's life and sometimes it's death... Something to keep in mind as we observe these nests. The cam can be found here -- the picture is really clear, but the angle is pretty bad:

 And here's a story of a Bald Eagle in Oklahoma that died of pesticide poisoning. That's a new one on me. They said the pesticide is commonly found in rat poison. I had a termite company tell me once that a poison would kill the animal that ate it, then kill the animal that ate the dead (poisoned) animal, which would then poison and kill whatever animal ate it. So if you poison a mouse, and it gets eaten by a snake, the snake will die. And if the snake then gets eaten by a raccoon, the raccoon will die. I think I'd rather not use a product when you can't control the domino effect like that...