Hello eaglets…thank you so much for phoning home! D27, D35, and D36 all sent airmails this week. D27 shifted a little northwest of Decorah, passing within a mile of Bob’s old falcon breeding facility in Bluffton! She’s currently about eleven miles north of the nest – the furthest she’s been since arriving back in town this August.
D35 continues to explore east central Minnesota. I checked out her coordinates and was fascinated by the area she’s currently staying in. Her forested bed and breakfast is on a beautiful, large parcel of land owned by Northrop Grumman. It contains several lakes – this is a large parcel of land! – and is nearly contiguous with the Rum River, which connects Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake with the Mississippi River. The unseasonably cold weather is sealing lakes over with ice a little early up here in Minnesnowta, but I’m hoping she’ll stay in the area long enough for us to go looking for her one more time!
Homebody D36 remains close to Decorah. Brett writes: “D36 has remained in the area between Postville and West Union, IA, for much of October focusing on the Turkey R. and, lately, Otter Creek. His solar-powered transmitter has been working very well, despite the shorter days.” Will he stay in the area or fly east to the Mississippi River as the cold begins to bite and streams are sealed by ice with ice? D27 visited the Mississippi River in January of 2018, but stayed closer to Decorah in 2019 and 2020. We’ll see how cold the weather gets and how much D36 feels like wandering.
Who traveled the most in October?
- D27 traveled about 128 miles, although she never got over about ten miles away from her natal nests. Her short flights added up!
- D35 traveled about 244 miles. She two long flights, three medium flights, and a whole bunch of short flights. She’s a young eagle away from her natal territory who doesn’t tend to spend very much time sitting still.
- D36 traveled about 216 miles. He didn’t have any long flights but, like D35, moved around a lot. Although we were hopeful that he and D27 might run into one another, they didn’t that we know. We’ll see what happens if D35 comes back to town.
Thanks again for checking in, everybody – fly high and stay fierce! A thousand thousand thanks to Brett Mandernack and the staff of Eagle Valley. We wouldn’t be able to follow the eaglets without their hard work, knowledge, and expertise! If you would like to explore the travels of any of the eaglets we’ve tracked, please go to https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/eagle-map/.
The Raptor Resource Project