D27 sent us an airmail! The barely-three-year-old eaglet is still spending time near the Decorah area, although she should be departing for her summer range in the next 20 days or so. She is working her foraging areas on the Upper Iowa and Trout Rivers and appears to be doing a good job of feeding up for her long migration north.
I got curious about what her winters looked like. In 2018, D27’s first dispersal year, she wandered quite widely as she explored SE Iowa. In 2019 and 2020, she was much more sedentary in January and February. Interestingly, she appeared to expand her range in March before settling back down in April, perhaps to concentrate on known foraging areas before the big leap north! I’ve included maps so you can take a look. If you’d like to make your own, visit our interactive eagle maps at https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/eagle-map/.
As always, a thousand thanks to Brett Mandernack and the staff of Eagle Valley for keeping us abreast of D27’s doings! Good luck, D27 – and have a great migration! Brett has a guess on her leave date that I’m not going to reveal right now – but we’ll see if he’s right!
The Raptor Resource Project