Bald Eagle KE's Transmitter No Longer Sending Position, Speculation About The Roles of Male and Female Bald Eagles Coming Into Maturity, Bald Eagle NX's Location, Berry College Daily Screen Capture

Bald Eagle KE made a New Year's resolution -- to stop transmitting her location. Her last transmission was on 12/31 after 566 days of reporting her position. Read Reese's blog post here. You will also find a map of all of her travels and the pictures that Reese took of her on the day her transmitter was fitted. I find it interesting that during all the time that her position was being reported, she never returned to her natal area (Saw Pen Point). It is long held that Bald Eagles upon maturity will return to their natal area to nest and raise their young. I've noticed that males are more likely to find (claim?) a territory based upon observations of Bald Eagle HK at Honey Bee and transmitter reports of Bald Eagle Camellia at Brown Cove. We know that HK began building a nest long before maturity. We don't know if Camellia has started to build a nest, but he does spend a lot of time at Brown Cove, so I suspect that he will settle down in that area. The female fledglings that we have followed for years (Azalea and NX) have shown no inclination to spend a lot of time in one area during their juvenile and sub-adult years. They just wander from place to place. I speculate that it might be the male's job to claim a territory and build a nest and then attract a female. That's just my speculation based upon a small sampling... And I believe KE's travels reinforce this belief. Safe travels, KE!

Speaking of Bald Eagle NX, she has finally checked in. She is still just wandering around, in an aimless sort of way.

A quick look at Berry College Eagle Cam shows Mom with her head tucked in, catching some Z's, incubating her egg. Since I really like this nest, I'm going to try to post a screen capture (s'cap) every day...

Turtle Bay nest, new Eagle behavior, Camellia's location, Azalea out-of-touch, SW FL nest, Connecticut River Bald Eagles, another thought on the pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle, disabled Bald Eagle on cam, Bald Eagle scuffle, nests in North Dakota, Feathered Photography post

Lots of material today. Yesterday's post was short because I just wasn't feeling it after the bad day at Turtle Bay. They are trying to piece together what happened at that nest. Here is an article.  I disagree with the article. I think the intruder is male and most likely got into a fight with the resident male. The intruder's feet look damaged on the web cam. I think that the resident male is either dead, injured or just chased away by the intruder. I grabbed this screen capture of female #4's feet last year. No doubt she was scrapping with the other females that were seen at the Norfolk nest last year.

With the increase in the eagle population, we will see more fights over territory. Here is a timely article that discusses how we are learning new things as eagles are adapting to areas that have reached saturation.

We have a new location map for Camellia. He is still local, hanging out on the south-side. Reese has also made an entry for Azalea, that he has received his last transmission from her. I had thought that the battery on her transmitter would gradually die. I didn't expect it to work one day and then to kaput! I was hoping that it would last for another year so we could see where she builds her nest. Oh well. Maybe we'll still luck out with ground reports...

I took this screen capture the other night of the SW FL Eaglets. They both have their heads tucked in, asleep. I'd wonder what they were if it weren't for the feet...

They are branching now, so there's only one in the nest this evening:

Here's an article on Bald Eagles on the Connecticut River. I'm posting the link here because I love the first picture in this article! This 4 year old Bald Eagle has the most awesome eye stripe I've ever seen! So pretty!

I mentioned recently that there was a Bald Eagle that died from pesticide poisoning. It also had lead in its system. I should have mentioned that it's possible that the Eagle consumed fish that was poisoned when a toxic substance washed into a body of water. It's concerning since we eat fish too...

The Bald Eagle nest cam Eagles4Kids is also giving us something new to learn about. The resident female showed up for the 2012/2013 nesting season with serious injuries to both of her feet. As the season progressed, she lost her right foot and is now making do with a stump. This resident pair has stayed together despite her disability. You can read about her disability here. And she is defying the odds -- she laid an egg on March 9th!

Note to self: Do not release a rehabilitated Bald Eagle near another Bald Eagle's nest... Good video of two Bald Eagles interacting with each other -- at one point one Bald Eagle flips over so they can face each other, talon-to-talon. No surprise that their feet can get pretty ugly!

North Dakota's Game and Fish Department is asking for the public to report the locations of Bald Eagle nests.

I love Ron Dudley's blog, Feathered Photography. Here's a link to his posts for 3/22 and 3/23. An American Kestrel and a Short-eared Owl. Wonderful pictures and explanations!