[TN-Bird] Golden Eagle fledgling, 2 July 2012, Smith Co.
- From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
- To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:53:26 +0000
On 2 July 2012, Polly Rooker picked up an emaciated and dehydrated Golden Eagle
juvenile from a TWRA wildlife officer in Smith Co. The bird was found north of
Hwy 85 on Little Salt Lick Rd, only a couple miles NW from Salt Lick Creek Rec
Area on Cordell Hull Lake. The bird was transported to Walden's Puddle in
Joelton and is now doing well.
To put this exceedingly rare oddity in perspective, here's a few interesting
tidbits about Golden's in Tennessee (some of which is old news to some TN-Bird
readers). A pair of Golden Eagles was known to nest near Cordell Hull Lake in
Jackson county in 1993, 94, 96, 2000, and 2001. This nesting activity was
thought to have been a result of the hacking of Golden's that occurred over the
years, although hacking was not done near Cordell Hull.
In Sept 2007, I received video and still photos of 2 adult Golden Eagles with a
juvenile on the Caney Fork River. The location of the 2007 birds is about 10
air miles from where the above bird was just found. I'm guessing that there is
at least one pair still nesting in this area around Cordell Hull Lake, which
again may or may not be a lingering result of the hacking that was done. The
nearest extant breeding populations of Golden Eagles are in New York state
(maybe in Pennsylvania) and in Colorado and west Texas, although there are some
recent summer records of adults with immature birds in western North Carolina
(that I just found in eBird).
At the link below, I have the latest edition of Bald Facts about Bald Eagles.
Within this 4 page PDF, there is some information about the history of the
Golden Eagle hacking.
http://tnwatchablewildlife.org/TWRApublications.cfm
Golden Eagle species account on the Watchable Wildlife web site.
http://tnwatchablewildlife.org/details.cfm?displayhabitat=&sort=aounumber&typename=TENNESSEE'S&uid=09042417581831654&commonname=Golden%20Eagle
Cheers,
Scott Somershoe
State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (office)
615-781-6654 (fax)
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