[Bristol-Birds] new era Golden Eagle studies in Tennessee

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 01:18:57 -0500
Tuesday marks the beginning of a new era for eagle research in Tennessee.  
Scientists have arrived in the eastern region of the state to begin capturing 
Golden Eagles and placing satellite-assisted transmitters on the birds so they 
can be tracked over their annual range and learn more about how threats to 
their population may be managed or avoided.

Dr. Trish Miller, a biologist at West Virginia University and a graduate 
student from Penn State University, is leading GIS studies on this project. She 
is joined by Mike Lanzone CEO and field biologist researcher of Cellular 
Tracking Technologies.  Dr. Miller is a pioneer in such satellite transmitter 
projects having placed the first such device ever on a Golden Eagle during her 
graduate work.  Lanzone's company created the technology and manufactures the 
transmitter devices.

Together, they are working for Dr. Todd Katzner, a research assistant professor 
at West Virginia University and the principal investigator with this major 
Golden Eagle survey.  He is assessing risks of wind energy development for 
eastern Golden Eagles along the mountain tops of Appalachia and has a 
significant grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

For the second year, state wildlife biologists have been placing deer carcasses 
in mountain openings where wintering Golden Eagles are attracted to feed on the 
deer meat.  Biologists were surprised at the number of eagles they were able to 
photograph with wildlife trail cameras placed at the sites.   The cameras took 
photos of eagles which were detected by motion sensors.  The digital 
photographs are studied to determine the presences of eagles and to make an 
estimate of the numbers.

This technique was first used in Tennessee in February 2011 when a Bristol Bird 
Club project monitored three cameras in Shady Valley, TN.  The state's first 
photo of a Golden Eagle taken in such a setup was captured by two members of 
the club on their farm on the western face of Iron Mountain.

Biologists have several Golden Eagles coming to baited sites.  One of the first 
attempts to capture a Golden Eagle will be made at a site set up and managed by 
Sterling Daniels, a Region 4 TWRA staffer of Morristown, TN.  His site is near 
the Virginal-Tennessee stateline in Claiborne County, TN.  

Miller and Lanzone will have a blind in place which they will hide in before 
daylight and watch the carcass for any arriving eagle.  If a bird comes to the 
deer, they will fire a rocket net which will be shot by explosive-propelled 
weights which pull a net into the air and over the eagle.

Any captured eagles will have a transmitter attached to them which is basically 
a device with a solar powered battery and using a GPS-GSM telemetry system 
designed for large birds such as eagles. The transmitter is a backpack-style 
unit designed for operation over long periods of time with adequate lighting 
conditions, and can operate at different sample rates depending on defined 
needs. Cellular technology allows the device to update frequent batches of 
telemetry data at considerably low cost compared to direct satellite devices 
which communicate with satellites. If cellular coverage is unavailable, the 
unit can store data points until it returns to a cellular phone tower coverage 
area. The packages of GPS locations collected from satellite signals will be 
delivered by cellular phone signals from the bird to a computer which is part 
of Dr. Katzner's research project at West Virginia University.

The camera and deer sites are located in East Tennessee and on the Cumberland 
Plateau.  

The West Virginia project has 100 camera sites from Canada to Florida. Georgia, 
North Carolina, Arkansas and Alabama.  Virginia has been deeply involved in the 
project for several years and captured and placed satellite tracking devices on 
many birds all along the mountains of Western Virginia.

The Bristol Bird Club has been part of the Virginia project, capturing 
thousands of photographs of Golden Eagles in Southwest Virginia for both the 
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Dr. Katzner's West 
Virginia University program.

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] new era Golden Eagle studies in Tennessee

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