[Bristol-Birds] Two eagle day sets new mark for Golden Eagle team.

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:56:42 -0500
















 The weather was good to the Clinch Mountain Golden Eagle team today
 and the project got its first two-eagle capture day.  In the photo above, 
 a beautiful bird, which was hatched in the breeding season of 2009, is
 shown with its seven-foot wingspan.  At left is biologist Jeff Cooper of the
 Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries with one of the agency's
 assistants, Jason Blevins of Chilhowie, VA.  The bird was taken about 
 mid-day Thursday in Smyth Co. and another eagle was captured two or three 
 hours earlier in Russell Co. It was a juvenile and was taken about 10:20 a.m   
        

At left is Dave Kramar of Virginia Tech
and Danny Harrington (right) a wildlife
biologist assistant with the Virginia
Department of Game & Inland Fisheries.

The eagles are being captured to place
bird bands on their legs, a sophisticated
GPS/cellphone transmitter on its back
and biological samples that researchers
believe will advance the knowledge of
Golden Eagles, their migration along the
ridges of the Southern Appalachians
and the wintering ecology of the species
in Virginia.  The project got underway in December and will continue thru March.
A bird photographed a few days ago in the Clinch Mountains wore one of the
tracking devices which was placed on a bird caught Jan 14, 2010 at the same
site where the second bird was caught today.  It had been tracked into the

northeast and had been in the Connecticut area.  At one
point the data signal was not being delivered over the
cellphone system but eventually the unit sent all of
the data and a complete set of all movement coordinates
and such were collected for the project.  Jeannette
Parker, shown at the left, who has assisted the project
in Russell County, captured the 2010 bird.  Meanwhile,
the Bristol Bird Club group, which is working with the
state project and the eastern North America project
lead by Todd Katzner of West Virginia University, has
established another baited and monitored site in 
 Russell County.  Dave Worley and Tom Hunter created a third site last
 Saturday.  Thousands of photos of Golden Eagles have been collected at
 the sites by Worley and Hunter.  Michele Sparks, who is implementing an
 educational component for the project, will soon use a digital video camera
 to capture a series of the actual events in handling and processing an
 eagle.  The snow was much deeper high on the mountains and
 the project had to use 4 wheel drive trucks with chains on all tires in
 order climb to the baited capture sites, put out gear, capture eagles and
 bring them to a central post.  All of us were in touch throughout today's
 activites, using radios to relay progress and success.  

 Let's go birding . . . .

 Wallace Coffey
 Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] Two eagle day sets new mark for Golden Eagle team.

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