[TN-Bird] Tennessee Golden Eagle tracking project update
- From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
- To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 01:17:11 +0000
I've been too busy to get info on the Watchable Wildlife web site, but I will
eventually. In the meantime, here's a little (ok, lengthy) update on the
status of the 3 Golden Eagles that we are tracking.
Hatfield Knob bird from North Cumberland WMA, Campbell Co., 3 yr old male:
He has spent most of the last 6 weeks going between the Cumberland Mtns in TN
to southern KY around Lake Cumberland State Park and the Monticello area.
Significant time has been spent on the Daniel Boone NF in KY. Some weeks the
bird flies 60+ miles a day, while other times he doesn't move much for a few
days. Last week he took a "vacation" and flew by Kingsport, Johnson City, into
the high mtns, practically flew over Clingman's Dome on a sweep through the
Smokies on into south Cherokee NF, then down the mountains to near Tellico
Plains, then took a direct path back to the Monticello, KY area passing near
Knoxville. Yesterday he took a big swing through eastern KY and ended up near
the Virginia state line.
North Alabama bird caught in Skyline WMA, Jackson Co. AL, 5 yr old male
(probably going to attempt breeding for the first time this year):
This bird has made several large movements over the last 6 weeks. As
previously posted, on Valentine's Day he went from north Alabama to north of
I-40 near the Caney Fork rest area. From there he took a more or less direct
north-south route through western Kentucky and western Indiana into southwest
Michigan. He got to MI in late February and two days later a big snow storm
hit. The bird turned back south, following almost the exact same route south
towards Bloomington IN, then veered west into southern Illinois for a few days
and turned back north. In the last week the bird has gone from southern IN to
the very north end of the "mitten" of Michigan where he flew along the
coastline until he got to Mackinaw City and basically crossed the Great Lakes
at the Mackinac Bridge! I'm guessing he didn't stop to pay the toll. He then
veered east and went into Ontario, Canada yesterday morning.
The most interesting thing about the track this bird has taken through western
Indiana (3 times now) is that he VERY closely follows a north-south forested
corridor. The bird is always near, over, or in mature forest. He spend little
time out over the ag fields and his path is almost always directly over the
forest, even when the forest zone is little more than a half mile wide riparian
zone. When he runs out of mature forest, the bird makes rapid movements across
the open landscape to the next big forested area. In two specific sections of
western Indiana, his path is over the same narrow wooded corridor! He's
visiting familiar places.
Unaka Mountain bird caught just into NC, at least 7 yr old male (likely 10 yrs
old)
The bird has not sent any data yet, although he was recorded on a bait site
trail cam near the capture site 9 days after being trapped. There are a couple
possible explanations for us not receiving any data yet.
1. Older birds have much smaller winter home ranges than younger birds and
maybe he has stayed in the cell coverage dead zone (which for AT&T is basically
the entire southern blue ridge mountains) all winter. He should be moving
north by now though and should have dumped data. Many older birds are on
breeding territories in Ontario and Quebec already.
2. Transmitter failure is possible, although these transmitters have extremely
low failure rates.
3. Tests conducted for blood lead levels show that this bird had pretty high
levels of lead in its system. Although the bird appeared fine during capture,
maybe the lead has affected its behavior and something has happened to the bird
as a result. The lead levels are quite concerning and we don't know how long
he can live with levels this high.
I hope the transmitter has just failed!! I have my fingers crossed that this
bird is alive and turns up somewhere soon. If we don't get data from it in the
next week or so, I'm doubtful we will ever get any data. The caveat of
cellular transmitters is that the bird needs to be near cell towers to dump
data, however it is a lot cheaper than satellite transmitters. Unfortunately
we may not know what happened to this bird.
The Hatfield Knob bird and the north Alabama bird both had elevated levels of
lead. Both were quite a bit above background levels, but not quite so high as
to be really concerned for their short-term survival. Since I know if you got
this far through my post (thanks by the way), you are curious about this:
Elevated levels of lead has been found in basically every Golden and Bald Eagle
that Mike Lanzone and Trish Miller have trapped and tested.
I guess I should copy this content onto the Watchable Wildlife page!
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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