Decorah and Decorah North Eagles
We got a nice long look at Mom on the ninth, which led to a lot of concerned questions about her appearance. Read this blog for more information: https://www.raptorresource.org/2019/07/12/is-mom-decorah-okay/
07/09/2019: Mom’s feature film – https://youtu.be/uCpI4X-cW5s. Our first good look at Mom for weeks; still lots of flies bothering her, but she stays on camera for over an hour. This is a long video, but we’ve been waiting a long time to see her.
07/09/2019: Flyby heading upstream – https://youtu.be/Wkyf4JZ-X0c. A fast flyby! Are the eagles okay? Based on what we can see from our cameras and reports on the ground, they are flying, perching, and otherwise behaving normally, even if we aren’t seeing very much of them!
07/10/2019: Visit at Decorah North – https://youtu.be/t3JtDhDTDOo. A nice breeze helps keep the gnasty gnats away!
Great Spirit Bluff
07/11/2019: Owl removes Kira’s body – https://youtu.be/t3JtDhDTDOo. A fascinating video, although not everyone will like it. We’ll be posting more on this shortly.
07/10/2019: Carson trades prey for dinner – https://youtu.be/ksgbvhpoqyQ. Carson is sprawled across the top of the nest box. Michelle flies into the rock ledge diner with prey and starts eating. We get a long shot and Carson is not there. He flies in at 3:04 (look for the flicker of his wings) and mantles over what turns out to be prey. So far, so good! At 3:33, Michelle heads toward him, holding prey in her beak. He continues to mantle and vocalize while watching her. She begins eating right behind him, appearing to offer food a couple of times (check 4:06, 4:08, and especially 4:14 for examples). He gets her in the face with a talon at 4:16 (it looks accidental to me) as he moves closer. He takes her prey and she gets his prey.
Was this instinctive behavior, food exchange training. or something else? We don’t know, but it is really interesting!
Mississippi Flyway
7/11/19: A Bald eagle and cranes – https://youtu.be/YRZ0eUlQL7M. The islands and sand bars of the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge provide important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, including bald eagles and sandhill cranes. As summer moves into fall, we’ll see more of them preparing for migration by feeding and gathering in larger flocks.
07/09/19: Egrets – https://youtu.be/M2wLwhVAtgM. Check 7:22 for a really cool look at an egret preening! Egrets were an important part of the passage of the Lacey Act. You can learn more here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/.
The Raptor Resource Project